


The Couple's Clause

by Laurensscribbles



Series: The Roommate Agreement [2]
Category: Odesta - Fandom, The Hunger Games
Genre: Alternate Universe, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-28
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-06-05 00:23:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 40,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6682012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laurensscribbles/pseuds/Laurensscribbles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Finnick has moved to California and Annie is staying in Boston for the summer. Will Finnick and Annie be able to keep their relationship together even while being thousands of miles apart? It might just take a few promises and a lot of awkward situations.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I Promise I’ll Love You Til the End of Time

“Want to go to the diner?” Nat asks, attempting to fill the silence in the car.

Annie shakes her head and lays down across the back seat. “I don’t want to eat.”

“Finnick thought you would say that. I have to get you something, Annie. I’m your certified caregiver until tomorrow when you go back home and your mother can make sure you’re okay.”

“I don’t need someone to take care of me,” Annie snaps. “I’m an adult. I can take care of myself. I’m twenty-two for God’s sakes.”

“And I’m twenty-four and last night I fell asleep naked on my floor because I was too high to get into bed. Age has nothing to do with it.”

“And Finnick thought you would be able to be my caregiver?”

Nat rolls his eyes as he stops at the red light. He turns around to look at Annie. “Listen, Annie. I get that you’re my best friend’s girlfriend and I get that you’re upset that he’s gone, but I’m upset that he’s gone too.”

“I spend more time with him than you do,” Annie points out.

“Yeah, because he’s practically ignored me ever since you came into his life!” Nat yells. “You come waltzing in with your band of friends and now my best friend never comes around anymore! And I know that I’m not the best influence and he shouldn’t follow in my footsteps because I’m unemployed and probably going to get kicked out of my house and only get money from my aunt who sends me money without my parents knowing about it, but I fucking miss him. He used to stay at my house all the time and now I’m lucky if I see him once a week.”

Nat notices that the light turns green and he turns back to the road and continues driving. Annie sits up and pulls some hair away from her face that had begun to stick because of her tears. “I’m sorry,” she whispers.

“I know you don’t mean it,” he says. “I’m happy for him. I really am. It’s just sometimes hard to be genuinely happy for a friend who deserves it when your life is so miserable. I miss him.”

“I’m sure he’d understand if you told him that.”

“We’re guys. We don’t talk about things like that… At least not sober.”

“What are your plans for the summer?”  
“I’ll probably continue trying to get a job. I didn’t go to college and most people aren’t willing to hire me. I mean I guess I’m being stubborn because my aunt sends me money but…”

“What about your parents?”

“What about them?”

“Do you see them?”

“Nope and I didn’t sign up for a game of twenty questions either.”

“I’m just trying to help.”

“No, you’re prying.”

“Listen, I’m just trying to get to know you because you’re my boyfriend’s best friend, but you’re making it really hard.”

“I don’t expect us to be friends, Annie.”

“Finnick’s going to be upset about that… You seemed fine with me before.”

“Well, Finnick’s not here is he?” After a long moment of silence, Nat sighs. “I’m sorry. I’m jealous of you.”

“Why? You’re his best friend.”

“Used to be.”

“You still are. He’s allowed to have multiple best friends.”

“You don’t get it, do you Annie? He’s chosen you. He doesn’t hang around me as much anymore and I thought maybe we’d finally hang out this summer when you left, but now you’re staying here and Finnick’s in California.”

“I mean, I’m going home for a month.”

Nat parks on the side of the street and turns around. “You can get out.”

“Thanks for the ride,” Annie mumbles. She gets out of the car and has barely shut the door before Nat is driving away. 

Annie closes her eyes and covers her ears for a second before realizing she should try to get into her apartment before having a panic attack. She was feeling extra panicky today, probably because she missed Finnick and felt unsafe without him. She was going to go home for a few weeks and then when she came back she was going to have new people living in her house. She had decided to stay in Boston for her internship because after a few months they finally moved her up from coffee making to paper filing and if she stays for the summer she’s probably going to be able to do some actual editing work. 

Madge was going to stay on Long Island for most of the summer but she plans on making frequent trips up to see Gale and Annie. Peeta was going home as well, but Katniss was staying too. Gale had to stay for work and Katniss got a summer job teaching archery at a summer camp and she would much rather stay in Boston than go back home and have her mom worrying her the whole time. Johanna and Jena were staying with Jena’s parents until they found an apartment which was hopefully very soon for Johanna’s sake because even though Jena’s parents loved her, Johanna was never very good at being polite and pleasing people. If she stayed too long in their house she would probably eventually be rude on accident and they would not approve of Johanna. Plus, Johanna was never good at staying in one place for a long period of time, and Rhode Island was proving to be even worse than Johanna’s hometown in Minnesota which before she went to Rhode Island she always referred to as “Satan’s Asshole.”

Annie digs through her bag for her keys and opens the door. She counts her breaths, breathing in and out for four counts so that she can attempt to calm down. Finnick won’t land in California for another few hours so it’s not like she can even call him to help talk her through this. She sighs. You can survive without him. You did for twenty-one years. Get over yourself. She sees the lights on and is puzzled because she could have sworn she turned the lights off before she left. She starts to think that she was probably just imagining things and actually left them on, before nearly falling back due to the presence of a figure on her couch. The figure starts laughing. “You should have seen your face!”

“Johanna!” Annie yells, clutching onto her bag to try and ground herself. “That’s not funny!” She starts crying and Johanna looks startled. Johanna may act distant and angry a lot of the time, but she does actually care about her friends when it really matters. 

“Shit, I’m sorry,” she says, not moving off the couch. “Finnick told me he wasn’t sure if Nat was going to end up staying here and he was worried about you so he asked me to stay here tonight.”

“He needs to stop babying me!” Annie gasps. “I’m not a baby. I’m fine.”

Johanna raises an eyebrow. “Are you really though?”

Annie starts crying harder and slumps down against the door. “No,” she wails burying her face in her knees. “I don’t know how people do long distance. I don’t know how I’m going to survive without him.”  
Johanna gets up and sits next to her. Annie looks up at her and wipes away her tears. “Listen, Annie,” Johanna says. “You’re going to be fucking fine. You’re not going to die just because your boyfriend isn’t here, okay? It’s not bad that you miss him, but you can’t be so dependent on him that you can’t live without him. That’s not healthy. This is going to make you guys stronger and then eventually you’ll probably move out there and get married and leave the rest of us behind.”

“Aw, are you going to miss us, Jo?” Annie asks, cracking a smile.

Johanna glares at her. “Of course I will, you dumbass. I’ve known Finnick the longest. I miss him like hell. I’m not a total emotionless robot. I do have feelings you know.”

“I know,” Annie says, going to hug her. 

“But don’t hug me,” she warns. “That’s reserved for special occasions.”

“How does Jena deal with you?” 

“I honestly have no idea sometimes.”

“Do you love her?” Annie asks all of a sudden.

Johanna looks at her like she has three heads. “Of course I fucking love her, Cresta. I haven’t ever loved anyone like I love her.”

Annie smiled. “I know. I just wanted to see you get sappy.” Johanna sighs but Annie can see her blush slightly. “You gonna marry her?”

She shrugs. “Maybe. I don’t know if we’re really the marrying types. Plus, I think Jena wants to get U.S. Citizenship before she does anything legal here.”

Annie nods. “I mean you could get married in Vegas or something.”

Johanna rolls her eyes. “That’s such a cliche.” She gets up and helps Annie up.”Well, what do you want to do tonight? I’m done with being sappy.”

Annie looks at her and suddenly realizes that she’s never really spent time alone with Johanna before. “I don’t know. What do you want to do?”

Johanna shrugs and walks over to the kitchen. She opens up one of the cabinets and pulls out a bottle of vodka. “What I do best,” she says grinning. She opens it up and takes a large swig out of it. She cringes slightly and swallows. “Want some?”

“I don’t know if drinking on a night I’m sad is really the best solution to my problems.”

Johanna shrugs. “More for me.”  
Annie pushes the button on her phone to see what time it is and her lock screen pops up. The wallpaper is the last photo she took of Finnick. He had fallen asleep amongst the boxes, his cap and gown still on. Poseidon is sitting in front of him, his paw out to attack the tassel on Finnick’s cap. Annie practically feels like crying again so she stands up and reaches out to Johanna. “Actually, on second thought.” Johanna grins and hands her the bottle and Annie uncaps it and takes a swig.  
***  
“Flying with a hangover was a really bad idea,” Annie grumbles sitting at the gate to wait for her flight. She looks at her phone. It’s seven in the morning in California, but she’s hoping maybe he’ll be awake because of jet lag. She texts him and quickly gets a response in the form of a phone call. She jams her headphones into her ears and hits the accept button.

“Miss me already?” he asks not even bothering to say hello.

“More than you can ever know.” She looks around at the other people around her. She always gets nervous talking on the phone in public, but she misses Finnick too much to really care at this point. 

“Who stayed with you last night?”

“Johanna,” she answered.

“What happened to Nat?”

“We don’t exactly get along,” she says putting it simply. “Not in a bad way. It’s just I don’t think he wanted to spend the night. Johanna nearly gave me a heart attack though, and then she almost killed me by giving me too much alcohol.”

“Are you going to be okay to fly?” he asks, clearly worried.

“I have to be,” she says. Then adds, “I’ve been drinking water. I threw up twice last night though.”

“I’m going to kill her,” he mumbles.

“Don’t,” she says. “She was pretty good to me.”

He sighs. “I just don’t want anything to happen to you.”

“I can take care of myself, Finnick,” she says, snapping a little. She’s been tired of people constantly checking up on her and acting like she’s broken.

“I know,” he says. “You’re going to be with your mom for the next two weeks right? And then the new kid moves in the day before you get back right?”

“Yeah, Thom is his name,” she says. “He knows Johanna. He seems really nice.”

“Everyone knows Johanna,” he says. “It’s like a weird conspiracy.”

Annie looks around and she suddenly feels like all eyes are on her. “Hey, Finn? I’m gonna go.”

“Alright,” he says after a pause. “I should try to get some sleep. Text me when before you take off and again when you land.”

“Okay,” she agrees. “Love you.”

“Love you more.”

“Promise?” Annie jokes thinking of their new deal.

“I promise I’ll love you til the end of time,” he says with a laugh.

She smiles before hanging up the phone. She turns on her music and closes her eyes to wait for her flight.  
***  
“Are you sure you aren’t too overwhelmed that they’re coming over tonight?” Annie’s mom asks again.

“Yes, Mom,” Annie groans. “I like Mike and Cecily and Devon. Plus, it will be good to be around people.”

“How are you holding up?”

“Well, Johanna stayed over last night and we both got way too drunk and then I had to fly with a wicked hangover.” Laura gives her daughter a look. “Mom, I’m an adult. I can drink.”

“That’s not what I’m judging you about. I’m concerned because my sweet, Florida-born daughter just said ‘wicked’.”

There’s a knock at the door and Laura goes to get it, but Annie looks at her. “I’ll get it,” she says, assuming it’s Mike and the kids. However, when she opens the door there’s a slightly short, broad-shouldered boy with curly brown hair and bright blue eyes smiling at her. 

“Annie?” he says. “Wow, I didn’t know you were home. You look great.”

Annie takes a second to register who it is before realizing it’s her next door neighbor. “Danny? You look so different!” she says remembering the small boy with crooked teeth and ears too big for his head.

“Most people call me Dan now,” he says. 

“My mom said you were in the service.”  
“Yeah,” he says. “I’m gonna stay around here for a while and go to community college. How’s Boston?”

“It’s good.”

“Annie!” Laura says, coming up behind her. “Why don’t you invite people in? Is this how I raised you? To have awkward conversation on the steps as the air conditioning pours out into the hot air.”

“Sorry,” Annie apologizes.

Dan laughs. “Don’t worry about it.” He hands a jar to Annie’s mom. “My mom wanted to give you this sugar cookie mix. It was great seeing you, Annie,” he says, before walking off.

“Isn’t he handsome?” Laura comments.

“I guess,” Annie shrugs.

“Oh, right,” Laura laughs. “You only have eyes for one man.”  
***  
“So, how’s Phillp?” Mike asks.

“Finnick!” Devon shouts.

“Now I feel like you’re doing it on purpose,” Cecily says as they all sit on the back porch after dinner. Annie sits on the floor and crosses her legs, picking at the chipping nail polish on her toes. 

“He’s good,” she says. “He moved to California.”

“That’s rough,” Cecily says. “Are you okay?”

“I miss him,” Annie admits.

“Cecily started seeing a young man,” Mike says. “His name is Derek.”

“Dad,” Cecily groans.

“What about you, Devon?” Laura asks. “Any girls you have your eye on?”

Annie tries to hide laughing from the irony of the statement. Devon still hasn’t told his father and Annie’s kept it from her mother just in case. 

Annie gets up to go to the bathroom and a little while later Cecily appears outside the door. “So, who’s this Derek?” Annie asks. 

“I’m not dating Derek,” Cecily says.

“But then-”

“Devon is. He comes over and he’s allowed to be in the basement alone with him because they’re boys and Dad doesn’t expect anything.” Annie nods but then all of a sudden she goes completely silent. “Annie? You okay?”

“I don’t think it’s Annie you have to worry about,” Mike says from behind his daughter. 

Cecily turns around and comes face to face with her dad. “Shit.”


	2. I Promise to Trust You

“This is all my fault,” Cecily says as she buries her head in her hands.

“It’s not your fault,” Annie says. “It was an accident. Do you really think your dad is going to be that mad?”

Cecily shrugs. “I don’t know. Devon didn’t want to tell him. We don’t really know how he’s going to react.”

Annie and Cecily sit in Annie’s room waiting for Mike to finish talking to Devon. “Maybe it’s a good sign that he’s talking to him here,” Annie says, trying to reassure the younger girl. “If he was really mad don’t you think he would take him home and yell at him there?”

Devon and Mike are outside while Laura cleans up after dinner. Mike is sitting in a chair and he just looks up at his son. “So you’re…”

“I’m gay, Dad.”

“That’s nonsense. You play football.”

“Playing football doesn’t make me immune to being gay,” Devon says, trying to be as polite as possible. His heart is thumping in his chest. He doesn’t know how his dad is going to react to his being gay, especially since he and Cecily lied about Derek. 

“You’re so young. How do you even know? You probably haven’t found the right girl yet.”

“You’re using every cliche in the book. I don’t like girls.”

“Then what about Liza? You just dated Liza.”

“She was a lesbian. Why do you think we always went on double dates with Alec and Naomi? I was actually dating Alec.”

“So you lied to me about that too? Why do you keep lying?”

“Because look at the way you’re reacting. You’re telling me to date girls when I don’t like girls. You wouldn’t tell Cecily to date girls would you?”

“Don’t bring your sister into this.”

“No, let’s bring my sister into this. You wouldn’t tell her to date girls because she’s not into girls.”

Mike presses his lips into a thin line. “I wouldn’t tell Cecily to date girls because homosexuality isn’t natural.”

Devon gets up. “Great talk, Dad.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to wait in the car. We’ve probably already overstayed our welcome.”

Mike sighs and Laura comes out. “Maybe he’s right. Maybe you should go.”

“You heard all that?” Laura nods. “Are you mad at me?”

“I’m not about to tell you how to parent your kid, but you probably shouldn’t go telling your gay son that homosexuality isn’t natural.”

Devon sighs. “This just isn’t what I expected. He was going to be something great. He was going to become a star football player and marry a beautiful young woman and have beautiful grandkids for me.”

Laura sighs. “This is something you have to work out with your son. I think you should go.”

***

Annie’s about to go to bed when her phone starts ringing. She just assumes it’s Finnick or Madge and picks it up without looking at who it is. “Annie? It’s Mike.”

“I have nothing to-”

“Please don’t hang up on me. Your mother is mad at me and my kids won’t talk to me.”

“I wonder why,” Annie says flatly.

“I was going to propose to your mother tonight.” Annie practically drops the phone. “Annie, you still there?”

“Yeah,” Annie answers. “I’m just surprised. That’s all.”

“I obviously didn’t get to though, because of the incident.”

“Well, what are you calling me for?”

“What should I do?”

“Maybe try to stop being homophobic.”

“Listen, Annie. I might be your step dad and I think you should respect me and try to see it from my side. I wasn’t raised knowing about gay people. I’m trying.”

Annie sighs. “Just try to see Devon’s side of it without shutting him down so quickly.” She pauses. “As for my mom, you can call her and offer to take her out to dinner tomorrow night and see how that goes.”

“Thanks, Annie. I owe you one.” Annie doesn’t respond. “I love you.”

Annie pauses and thinks about just hanging up, but then thinks better of it. “I love you too.”

***

“So, Finnick, are you happy to be back home?” Finnick’s foster mom, Emily, says to him.

“Sure,” he says, pushing around the mashed potatoes on his plate.

“What’s Boston like?” Alex, the eldest foster kid, asks.

“It’s nice. It’s a big city, but not as loud or crazy as New York.”

“I wanna get out of here when I graduate,” he says. “I’m gonna go and never look back.”

“That’s how I felt,” Finnick says. He thinks about his birth mom and how his foster parents took him back even though he was horrible to them and barely ever called. “Just don’t take where you came from for granted.”

After dinner, he helps Emily wash some of the dishes. “How’s Annie?” she asks as he scrubs some gravy off a plate.

“She’s good. She’s back in Florida for a few weeks and then she’ll move back into the apartment with the new roommate. He’s one of Johanna’s old friends.”

“She’s living with a boy?”

“Yeah,” he says, handing her the dish to dry. “What’s wrong with that?”

“You’re okay with that?”

“Yeah, she lived with me didn’t she? She’ll be okay.”

“She lived with you and then started dating you,” his mom points out.

“She wouldn’t cheat on me,” he says, glaring at her. “I don’t like that you think she would.”

“No, I’m not saying that,” she says, trailing off at the end of the sentence. “It’s good that you trust her.”

“That’s what relationships are about,” Finnick says, feeling strange to be giving relationship advice to someone much older than him. “If you don’t trust each other than what else do you have?”

“You’re very grown up, Finnick. You’ve turned into a fine young man.” She puts down the plate and gives him a hug and Finnick hugs her back no matter how uncomfortable he feels. He goes upstairs and immediately calls Annie, but then realizes it’s eleven at night on the East Coast and that she’s probably already asleep. He calls Nat instead, knowing he’d definitely be awake.

“Miss me already?” he says after two rings.

“You know it,” Finnick says, laughing. “How you doing?”

“Not bad. I think I’m going to pick up a few odd jobs.”

“Really? What happened to your pride?”

“My pride is all gone. I’ve been sitting on the couch using the money my aunt gives me to support myself on drugs.”

“You don’t just use it on drugs. You also use it on-“

“Those are technically drugs too.”

“Yeah, but they’re _legal_ drugs. And she knows you use her money for that. That’s part of why she gives you money. Your parents were never going to pay for that.”

“Don’t I know it,” Nat says.

“Ever hear from them?”

“Nope. I could be dead for all they know and they wouldn’t even care.”

“Don’t say that.”

“It’s fine. I don’t want them in my life anyway. If I died and they were in charge of me, you know the funeral would be all wrong.”

“I know.”

There’s a long pause. “Did Annie tell you about our little fight?”

“Briefly. I didn’t know it was an actual fight.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t very understanding. I kind of yelled at her because I miss you and I took it out on her.”

“Wow, Nathaniel Hendrix actually has feelings?”

“Ha ha. Very funny,” he says sarcastically. 

“I miss you too, Dude. It feels weird to be back here.” He pauses. “And I’m sorry we haven’t been hanging out as much. I got so caught up in Annie and my new friends and finally feeling like I belong that I forgot about the friend that was with me through everything. You were with me when it was ugly and I’m really sorry that I wasn’t there for you more.”

“I’m glad you’re happy, but I did miss you. I mean I’ve been hanging around with the usual gang but I think we all miss you.”

“Except Angie,” Finnick jokes.

“Angie barely comes around anymore either. She started dating Jason Nelson and she hangs out with all the lacrosse kids now. “John has a hunch that she’s actually sleeping with the whole team.”

Finnick shrugs. “Could be. How is the usual crew?”

“John’s dating Alex, Lisa might start dating May, and apparently that time Landon and I made out when we were high as fuck wasn’t just because we were high and I think he wants to date or something.”

“Are you going to?”

“I don’t know,” he admits. “I don’t know if we’re in the same place. He probably wants something stable. He works for an accounting firm. He wears a suit everyday. It’s Wednesday and I haven’t gotten out of my underwear all day.”

“You don’t know unless you try, Nat.”

“I guess,” he says. “I mean, I am trying to get my life together so maybe one date won’t hurt.”

“Let me know how it goes. I always liked the idea of you and Landon together.”

“Why didn’t you tell me that?”

“It’s weird to tell your two friends that you want them to date.”

“People do it all the time. Have you heard of shipping?”

Finnick laughs. “Go to bed, you weirdo. Don’t try to do too many important things at once. Take it at your own pace, okay?”

“Yeah, Dad. Whatever,” he groans. “Speaking of… I finally made the appointment.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. I don’t know. Just to see what happens I guess.”

“I’m proud of you, Dude. You know if you actually do this, I’m flying in to be with you.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“Of course I do. You’ve been talking about this for years. I’m going to be there for you.”

“Thanks, Man.”

“Of course.”

There was another long pause. “I miss you.”

“I miss you too.”

***

Annie wakes up the next morning to an empty house. She looks at her clock and sees that it’s eleven. “Wow, I slept in a little more than I thought.” She decides to stay in her pajamas and goes downstairs to make breakfast. She takes out the ingredients for an omelette and sighs. She thinks of all the times they made omelettes together. Like before they started dating and he wrapped his arms around her waist and she taught him what to do. Or when they were dating and they almost burned the omelette because they were too busy kissing and staring into each other’s eyes. Before Annie starts the omelette, she goes outside to pick up the newspaper. She looks over at her house and Dan is doing the same. He’s wearing basketball shorts and a black tank top and his curly brown hair falls into his eyes as he goes to pick up the paper.

“Late start?” he jokes, picking up his paper.

“Speak for yourself,” she says walking over to the fence. “How are you doing, Danny… I mean Dan.” She blushes. “That’s going to be hard to get used to.”

“It’s hard to get used to how grown up you are,” he says.

“I haven’t changed much,” she says. “You on the other hand…”

“What are you up to?”

“Just making breakfast. Want to join me?”

“Sure,” he says, walking around the fence and following her into the house. “So where do you go to school?” he asks, pushing a chair out from the kitchen table and sitting down.

“Emerson,” she says. 

“Do you like Boston?”

“Yeah, it’s nice.”

“I’ve never been.”

Annie turns on the stove and pours the eggs into the pan. “What do you want in your omelette? Do you want ham?”

“No thanks. I’m a vegetarian.”

Annie smiles thinking about what Finnick would say in that situation. Finnick would roll his eyes and make some snide comment about how vegetarians are weak. He always picks on Madge for it.

Annie goes to put eggs in the pan when her phone starts ringing. “Hey, Finn,” she says. “What’s up?”

“Nothing. Just missing you.”

“Really? What a coincidence. I’m missing you too.” The eggs start to cook so she flips it. She turns around and looks at Dan. “Did you want cheese?”

“Yes please,” he says to her.

“Is Devon there?” Finnick asks.

“No, it’s my neighbor, Dan. I haven’t seen him in a while so I invited him in for omelettes.”

“You’re making omelettes for another guy?” Finnick asks.

“Why are you jealous?” she asks, slightly teasing but also checking to make sure he’s not actually upset.

“Of course not,” he says, but she could hear the hesitation in his voice. 

“Hey, can I call you in a couple of minutes? I want to make sure the omelettes don’t run and it’s kinda hard to do that when you have a phone in one hand.”

“Yeah, of course,” he says. Then he pauses. “I’m actually going out with an old friend from high school today so I’m going to be out for a few hours. I’ll call you tonight though?”

“Oh… yeah,” she says. “I love you.”

“Yeah,” he says, hanging up.

She sighs and hangs up. She looks down and sees the omelette is burning. She flips it and puts it on a plate. “I’ll take this one,” she says. “It’s all burned.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Dan says, taking it from her. “I don’t mind if my omelette is a little burned.” 

She smiles at him gratefully. “Thanks.”

“Tough phone call?”

“I guess you could say that,” she says not really wanting to explain the situation to the neighbor she barely knows. She starts scraping the grease from her pan so she can make the next omelette.

“So, do you want to go out with me tonight? There’s a party at a friend’s house that I was going to go to.”

Annie starts to think about saying no, but then she decides it would be fun to go out and get drunk and meet people in the area. “Yeah, why not?”

She cracks an egg into the pan as he stands up and throws his plate into the garbage. “I’ll pick you up tonight at eight, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Awesome,” he says, hugging her. “See you then.”

He leaves and Annie picks up the phone and calls Madge. “Hey, I think I’ve made a mistake.”

“You have been home for one day. What could you have possibly done already?”

“My cute next door neighbor invited me to a party tonight. I think Finnick is already jealous of him.”

“Are you into him?”

“No!”

“That seemed a little defensive.”

“Madge, I don’t like him. You know I’m in love with Finnick.”

“I know… I’m just saying California is a long ways away and I know the boy next door narrative has been told in every book, movie, and porn intro…”

“Madge!”

“What? It’s true!” Annie sighs. “Look Annie. If you weren’t worried, why would you have called me?”

“I don’t think I’m going to cheat or anything…”

“I didn’t say you were going to do that,” she says. “I’m just saying watch okay? The best quality to have in a relationship is trust. Be honest with Finnick. Tell him you’re going to that party so that he knows and there will be nothing to worry about.”

“You’re right,” Annie says. “Thanks, Madge.”

“Of course. What are best friends for?”

“I miss you.”

“Miss you too.”

Annie grabs her phone and is about to text Finnick first when she gets a text from him. _Hey, this might be weird to ask but you’re not going to hang out with this Dan guy anymore are you? I promise to trust you._

Annie thinks about telling him, but then decides against it. He has no reason to worry anyway. _Yeah, I’m not seeing him again. Don’t worry._

She hits send and sighs as she realizes her omelette is burning again. “Nothing is going right today.”


	3. I Promise I'll Call You in the Car

Annie runs into her room in only a towel and opens her closet. She runs her hands through her clothes and takes out a few dresses. The first dress is light blue and has a low neckline. She wore it on a date with Finnick once. They went to an Italian restaurant and she drank too much wine and he had to usher her into a cab as she giggled and tried to kiss him over and over again. The second dress is dark green and reminds her of Finnick’s eyes, not because it’s even close to the shade of his eyes, but because it’s green and his eyes are green and that’s all it takes to make her think of him. The third dress is purple and at first she can’t think of when she last wore it, but then she remembers that she wore it on Halloween when she was Megara and he was Hercules and they almost kissed at that party and he chose her out of all the girls in that circle even if they just ended up talking for seven minutes. She sits down on the ground and runs her hands through her hair and closes her eyes. Ever since Finnick left, she’s been feeling more anxious and she can’t help but think that’s because he’s gone. She doesn’t want to think of herself as weak. She can live without him. She doesn’t have to rely on him. 

“Ann?” Annie looks up and her mom is standing in her doorway in her robe. Annie remembers her date with Mike. “What’s going on?”

Annie just puts down the dresses and starts crying. “I miss him and I feel broken without him and I’m afraid that I’m too dependent on him.”

“Hey, hey,” Laura says, hunching down and kissing her daughter on the forehead. “There’s nothing wrong with loving someone.” She sits down next to her daughter. “It just means you found someone worth being in your life.”

“But it’s not good if I feel incomplete without him.”

“Well, you don’t seem to be doing so bad. Now, if you were in bed all day and you weren’t eating, then I’d be worried. Listen, Annie,” she says, looking at Annie and pulling the red hair out her daughter’s eyes. “When you love someone, you’re going to miss them. It’s because your life was better when they were in it, and when they’re gone, you realize the void they leave. It doesn’t help that it’s summer and you’re not around Madge and the others. But you’re going out tonight and you’re going to meet that new roommate when you get back. Listen, Kiddo, you’ll be alright.” She smiles. “When you went off to college I slept at your aunt’s house for a whole week.”

“You never told me this,” Annie says wiping her eyes. “Aunt Carol lives in North Carolina! You went all the way to North Carolina? You must have had to miss work!”

“Yup,” she says. “Stayed in North Carolina when I was driving home. I couldn’t bear being in the house without you. I didn’t want to go back home. But I had to get back to work, and your Aunt Carol couldn’t keep me as her guest forever. She just looked at me one day and said ‘Laura, I’m not going to sugarcoat it. Going back to that empty house is going to suck. You’re going to be sad and it’s going to take a lot of getting used to, but then when Annie comes back, your house is never going to be brighter. And that’s the beautiful thing about it.’” Annie smiles. “Finnick is going to come back. And you’re going to tackle him in that airport and gross all the other people out and it’s going to be the best time you’ve ever seen him. Because seeing you that day in the airport when you came home for Thanksgiving made up for all the days I felt the house was too empty.”

“Thanks, Mom,” Annie says, hugging her.

“Now,” Laura says, getting up. “We both have to get ready for our big nights.”

Annie nodded. “Which dress?”

Laura looks at the pile of dresses on her daughter’s floor. “Blue one. I’ve always liked you in blue.”

Annie picks it up and hangs the other two up. She turns back as her mom is walking out. “Hey, Ma?”

Laura turns her head. “Yeah?”

“Love you.”

“Love you too, Baby.”

***

“I’ve never been to a party around here before,” Annie admits as Dan drives down a block lined with cars.

“In this neighborhood?”

“No, in Florida.”

Dan laughs and pushes his hair out of his eyes. “You’re joking.”

“No, I never went to parties in high school. Honestly, I barely go to parties in college either. Not really my scene.”

“A pretty girl like you? Never goes to parties? I don’t know if I can believe it.”

Annie grips the sides of her seat and slowly breathes in and out. “I don’t know if I should consider that a compliment or not.”

Dan puts his right hand on her leg and smiles. “Oh, Honey. Don’t worry about it.”

Annie can’t help but feel like this is a totally different Dan than she’s ever seen before. “Maybe I should go home,” she says, breathing in sharply.

“Home?” he asks, laughing. “We didn’t even get there yet.” He pulls into a spot. “Come on, let’s go.”

Annie feels very uneasy all of a sudden and holds onto her purse. She has a phone. It’s fully charged. She can always call a cab if she needs to. She realizes that the house is a frat house. Dan must know these friends from college or something. Frats and sororities in Boston don’t have houses like this because it’s a city. She’s only seen parties like this in movies. She goes into the kitchen and someone is over at a table with two large coolers. Jungle juice. She grabs a cup and turns around, figuring Dan would be with her, but he’s already disappeared. _Great. Alone at a party and I know no one._ She takes large gulps from her cup, hoping it will be enough to calm her nerves, but it just makes her nauseous. She goes downstairs hoping to find Dan, but she just finds a bunch of drunk people dancing and drinking. Annie weaves her way through the crowd. A very tall boy with a beer in his hand stops her as she’s about to reach the bathroom. “I haven’t seen you around here before. I’m Dale.”

“I’m leaving,” Annie says pushing past him and finally reaching the bathroom. “Just call a cab,” she instructs herself as she tries to calm her breathing. But in her state, calling a cab seems nearly impossible. It’s times like these when she wishes she was in Boston or she had friends in Florida she could call. She could call her mom, but she’s at dinner with Mike and she wouldn’t want to ruin his proposal. “I can call the cab when I calm down. I’m twenty-two. I can do this.” She closes her eyes. _How can I calm down? How? I’m in a crowded house where I know no one and I came here with a guy who isn't very nice and I don’t know anyone and I’m going to stay in this gross bathroom forever because I can’t call a cab and I’m going to starve and die._

Her phone starts vibrating and at first she’s startled but then she looks down and sees it’s Finnick and she already feels a little more calm. Then she remembers he doesn’t know she’s at this party and she panics again. She considers not picking it up, but then she realizes the only way she’s going to actually calm down is if she picks it up and talks to him.

“Annie Pie.” If someone were to ask her what her favorite sound was, it would probably be Finnick saying her name. She couldn’t just pick one time. Sometimes he says it excitedly like a little kid. Other times he says it low and seductively. Or sometimes he says it when he’s just woken up and it comes out like a raspy whisper as he flutters open his eyelids and smiles at her. This time it’s excited, but also a little slower, a little sadder. She can tell he misses her. She wonders if he knows how much she misses him. How much her chest aches without him.

“Finn,” she rasps out.

“Annie, what’s wrong? What’s going on?”

“I went to that party and I’ve been here for five minutes and please don’t hate him but Dan touched my leg and then he left me and I’m in the bathroom and I’m going to die here because you’re not here to take me home this time and Madge is in New York and Katniss and Johanna are in Boston and I’m afraid to call a cab and I don’t know where Dan went and I’m sorry I lied to you and I’m sorry I came. It was a mistake and I miss you and my mom and Mike are getting engaged tonight and Cecily accidentally told Mike that Devon is gay and Mike is pretty pissed and-”

“Breathe, Annie.”

Annie takes a deep breath and closes her eyes. “Can Cecily or Devon drive? Why don’t you call them?”

“That’s a good idea.”

“You’re going to be okay. How drunk are you?”

“Not very.”

“Okay good.”

She starts crying harder. “Please don’t hate me, Finnick.”

“Annie, that is probably the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever said.” He starts laughing and Annie can’t understand why he would laugh at a time like this. “And we’re talking about the girl who once told a woman in a supermarket that if she took the last pie, she would ruin my Thanksgiving.”

Annie laughs. “I miss you.”

“I miss you more. Now figure out the address and call Cecily and Devon.”

“I will,” she says. “Thank you.”

“Of course. Call me when you get home.” He pauses. “Actually, call me when you get in the car with them.”

“Finnick,” she groans.

“I’m serious, Ann. Promise me?”

“I promise.”

“No, _promise me._ ”

“Really? This again? Can’t you be normal?”

“Nope, but you love me so it’s fine.”

“I promise I’ll call you in the car.”

“I’m keeping a list. They’re stupid but they remind me of you.”

She smiles and then tries to cover it up. “But calling? Really?”

“It’s just an excuse to hear your adorable voice.”

She blushes and she can’t understand how she found someone like him. “I should get out of the bathroom soon in case someone actually wants to use it.”

Finnick laughs. “Talk to you soon, Annie Pie.”

“Okay, Phil Nick,” she smiles, hanging up the phone.

***

“I’m so sorry,” Annie says for about the twelfth time.

“Annie, you’re basically our sister. Stop apologizing,” Cecily says as she drives Annie to her house. “Plus, we all know our parents are hopefully getting engaged tonight, so we can be at your house to celebrate when they get home.”

Annie nods. “How have you guys been?”

“Alright,” Cecily says. She shifts in her seat a bit and looks straight ahead at the road. She’s driving and Devon got into the back so that Annie could sit in the front with Cecily. Annie had insisted it was okay that he stay in the front but he got in the back anyway. Annie always preferred the front anyway. She always felt awkward being alone in the back especially in an unfamiliar car.

“How’s your dad doing?” she asks, mainly directing the question towards Devon.

“He’s learning. He asked me tonight if I’m the boy or the girl in the relationship with Derek. Which I guess is good because he’s not making us break up.”

Annie laughs. “It’s a start.”

“What’s it like going to such a progressive school?” Cecily asks.

“You learn a lot,” Annie says. “It’s cool.”

“Have you met a transgender person? I’ve never met one but I’ve heard about them.”

“Yeah, I have.”

“What are they like?”

“They’re just people, Cecily,” Devon says.

“Oh… yeah… well,” Cecily pulls up in front of the house and is visibly flustered. “I didn’t mean-”

“Don’t worry about it,” Annie says. “It’s okay.”

Annie digs into her bag for her keys and opens the door. “I forgot to call Finnick!” she says, sitting on the couch. She takes her phone out of her bag to see a few missed calls from him. She opts for FaceTime. “I’m sorry,” she says, as soon as he picks up the call.

“As long as you’re okay.”

“Wait! I wanna see!” Cecily says, squeezing onto the couch next to Annie. Devon leans in as well and they both say hello. 

Finnick laughs. “Nice to meet you guys. Thanks for getting her home.”

“Of course,” Devon says. “We’re glad she called.”

They hear the key turn in the lock and Mike and Laura walk in. “Annie!” Laura yells. “Are you home?! I’m engaged!” She stops when she realizes that they’re all on the couch.

“Right here, Mom,” she says, laughing. “What are you doing here? We figured you want to be…” She trails off and winks.

“Well, we thought there’d be kids in both houses, but apparently not,” Mike says laughing.

“Congrats, Laura!” Finnick yells. 

“Wait is that my son?” Laura asks, slipping off her shoes. She runs over and takes Annie’s phone. “How are you doing, Honey?” she asks Finnick.

“Hurtful!” Devon says. “I’m more of your son than he is.”

“Not really,” Cecily says. “You’re kind of even.”

Devon rolls his eyes. “Whatever,” he says sticking his tongue out at her.

“Apparently not,” Annie says, laughing as her mom carries on her conversation with Finnick. Annie takes the phone back from her mom. “Hey, Babe? I’ll talk to you tomorrow okay? Love you.”

“Love you!” he says before hanging up.

“What are you all doing here?” Laura asks.

“Annie asked us to pick her up,” Cecily says.

“You okay?” Laura asks worriedly.

Annie nods. “Yeah. I’m all good.”

“Well, this is nice! The whole family together,” Mike says. “Why don’t we all get some ice cream or something?”

“Sounds good to me,” Annie says, taking her mom’s hand and looking at the ring. “Nice taste,” she says, laughing and going over to hug him. “Welcome to the family,” she says. Then she pauses. “Almost.”

“Do you have any faith in our relationship?” Laura jokes.

“A little.”

“I have more faith in Finnick and Annie’s relationship,” Devon chimes in as they all head out the door.

“I second that,” Cecily says. “They’ll probably get married before you two.”

“I’m personally offended,” Mike says as they get into the car.

Annie laughs and she looks around at the car filled with her family. Before this year it was just her and her mom, but now she’s going to have a new dad and two siblings and she couldn’t be happier. It just goes to show that even days that start with burnt omelettes can end with ice cream with the people you love.

 


	4. I Promise to Take You Here

“I feel like a parent,” Cecily says as she, Annie, and Devon drive back to Annie’s house. They were going to let Laura and Mike stay over at their house for some alone time together after their engagement.

“Yeah,” Devon mumbles putting his legs up in the backseat. “Do you think they got engaged a little quick?”

“They’ve been dating for about eight months,” Annie says.

“They’re also adults. They can do what they want,” Cecily adds as she pulls into the driveway. She circles around the back of the car and pulls her duffel bag out of the trunk. She throws Devon’s bag at him and he drops it. Cecily laughs and Devon goes red and bends down to pick it up. 

“When do you go back to Boston?” Devon asks Annie as she unlocks the door. 

“In about a week.”

“And all your friends are there?”

“Katniss and Johanna and Gale.”

“And your mom said you’re getting a new roommate?”

“Yeah, Thomas. He’ll already be moved in when I get back.”

“You’re living with a boy?” Cecily asks. 

“Yeah,” Annie says, turning on the light and sitting in the living room. “What’s wrong with that? I lived with Finnick.”

“Won’t it be weird to live with a boy you’re not dating?”

“Probably not. I don’t think it’ll be any different than living with a girl.”

“I guess,” Cecily says, sitting down.

“So, Devon,” Annie says. “How’d you meet Derek?”

Devon looks down. “We work together at a summer camp.”

“Tell her _how_ you met,” Cecily eggs on. 

“Nah,” Devon mumbles. “She’s not interested in that story.”

“Now I’m intrigued,” Annie says, looking over at Devon. He doesn’t even bother to look up. He’s fixated his gaze on a spot on the floor. 

“C’mon,” Cecily grins. “Either you tell her, or _I’m_ gonna tell her. And you don’t want that.”

Devon looks up, wide eyed. “We’re both counselors at the camp and a lot of times when the kids are eating lunch or something, the counselors will play volleyball. I’m the worst at volleyball, but my friend Nadia dragged me over to play with her. I think it was because she knew I was totally crushing on this new counselor, Derek, who just moved here from New Mexico and he was the talk of the camp. All the girls were drooling over him.”

“All the girls and Devon,” Cecily jokes.

Devon rolls his eyes. “Shut up. This is my story.” Cecily laughs and Devon continues. “So as if we were fifth graders or something, this really pretty girl Lily… Basically your pretty cheerleader type and Derek… shocker… are voted captains. You’d think we’d just get into teams on our own like adults but no, we had to reenact a scene out of a LifeTime movie or every TV show ever…” He laughs and realizes he’s going on a bit of a tangent. “Anyway, I am probably the smallest guy and everyone knows that I suck at volleyball. Like, even if you don’t know me, you could tell that I am absolutely horrible. But Derek picks me first. He says my name and grins and I almost melted. I thought Nadia was going to have to scrape me off the beach and put me in a jar and label it with name so that my dad knew it was me.”

“Okay, Drama Queen,” Cecily cuts in again. “We get it, Mr. Handsome Hunk chose you first.”

Devon flips her off and turns back to Annie. “So we choose everyone else and I’m nervous because yeah, it’s a stupid game of beach volleyball, but let me tell you, camp counselors get competitive when it comes to beach volleyball. It’s like the fucking Olympics. So I feel like I have this pressure to be really great because Derek picked me first when in all reality, all I want to do is stare at his ass in that swim suit. So Lily serves the ball and of course it comes right towards me and I’m distracted by my ass gazing and the ball smacks me in the face.”

“I witnessed it. It was pretty funny,” Cecily says.

“You’re the worst sister ever.”

“You love me.”

Devon sticks his tongue out at her and Annie rolls her eyes at both of them. “Finish this story before I age twenty years, okay?” she jokes.

“So my Knight in Shining Suntan Lotion volunteers to give up his reign as captain and walk me to the infirmary because of course, my nose starts gushing like a fire hose. And I’m absolutely _mortified_ because now this hot kid is going to remember me as the dork who got hit with a volleyball and became Niagara Falls. And I just have my hands covering my nose trying to staunch and he takes my arm to guide me so I don’t crash into something, and then later on when I have gauze stuck up my nose he asks me if I want to grab coffee after the day if over. And that’s it.”

Cecily looks at him. “You know that’s not it.”

Devon sighs and rolls his eyes knowing he’s not going to get out of this one. “Because I’m awkward and honestly not sure how to tell when a guy is gay, I legitimately looked at him and blurted out, ‘Are you gay?’ and he laughs and goes ‘Pansexual actually but yeah, this is a date if that’s what you’re wondering.’ Then he paused and was like, ‘And if you’re okay with that.’ And I nodded so violently that the gauze almost came out of my nose and then later on when he was gone I had to look up what pansexual meant on my phone so luckily he told me it was a date or I still would have had no clue. The way I look at it, pansexuals are like bisexuals but leveled up. They’re like Pokemon.”

Annie laughs. “That’s definitely the first time I’ve heard it phrased that way.” She looks at Devon. “That’s super cute though. I’m really happy for you.” She looks over at Cecily. “What about you?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know. Whenever the summer hits, I usually hook up with my ex again, but honestly, I’m so done with that. I think I need to just be single for now.”

Annie nods. “I respect that. That’s good.”

“How are you doing?” she asks. “About Finnick I mean.”

“I miss him everyday,” she says. She looks at a text she had just gotten from Finnick. It was a picture of the California sunset with the caption, _I promise to take you here._ She smiles. “But I think we’ll be okay.”

***

Finnick wakes up the next morning and for a second he forgets where he is. He rolls over to the left, expecting to find Annie smiling back at him, or at least the empty left half of the bed to let him know that she was there. Instead he almost rolls out of bed, because the bed in his foster parents’s guest room is only a twin. 

He buries his head in the pillow and lets out a groan. He gets up and rummages through his suitcase. He hadn’t even unpacked yet. He pulls out the first pair of shorts and tank top he comes across, not even bothering to check if they match. He didn’t take the time to fold everything as nicely as he should have so his shirt was badly wrinkled. He sighed. He was going to go apartment searching but he had a huge headache and wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep even if it was already one in the afternoon. He walked downstairs praying that his mom was out of the house. She was, and he rummaged through the fridge to find something to eat. He ended up just grabbing a water bottle and a protein bar from the cabinet. 

He gets into his foster dad’s car because his dad usually carpools to work with his coworkers. He puts his hand in his pocket and feels a piece of paper. Finnick furrows his eyebrows and pulls it out. It’s the address to his birth Mom’s house and the business card she had given him. He suddenly remembers that he wore these shorts the last time he was in California and probably forgot to empty his pockets. He hasn’t worn them since so he had totally forgotten about it. 

He stares at the address before shoving it in the cupholder and putting on sunglasses. Then he pulls out of the driveway and turns on the radio. He drives around, not really paying attention to where he’s going until suddenly he realizes he must have known exactly where he was going because he ends up in front of Melanie’s house. He should just drive away. He shouldn’t be here. Trying to have a relationship with his birth mom is just going to be painful for him. It’s just going to hurt her and it’s going to hurt him because while he can lie to himself and say he doesn’t care if he has a relationship with his birth mom or not, he knows that it kills him that she gave him up. It kills him to see her with her son and her daughter in her nice house with her mini van and to think that if she didn’t fuck up and get pregnant early or if she had kept him, that he could have that too.

Finnick turns the key in the ignition and is about to drive away, but then he turns the car off again. He looks at the small blue house with the dying lawn in the front. The garage door is fading and one side of the railing on the porch looks crooked. Children’s toys litter the lawn: plastic lacrosse sticks and baseballs and tennis rackets. The house looks run down, but for some reason he wants nothing more than to live in that house and be a part of their lives. He knows it’s a bad idea, but he gets out of the car and knocks on the door. There’s a car in the driveway so he’s hoping Melanie will be home and that the kids will still be at school.

He knocks on the door and a man about his height with long brown hair and dark eyes answers the door. He’s wearing a faded Padres T-shirt and gray basketball shorts. “Can I help you?”

“Is Melanie Mackey here?”

“She’s at work. She should be back soon.” He narrows his eyes. “She didn’t tell me she was expectin’ company. Who are you?”

Finnick swallows. This must be Melanie’s husband or boyfriend or whatever. “I’m a friend from work,” he blurts out. He doesn’t know what compelled him to lie, but he couldn’t bring himself to tell this man he just met that he was the estranged son of the women he apparently had two children with. 

“Come in,” he says. 

“Thanks,” Finnick says, wishing he had brought his water bottle with him. His throat is extremely dry all of a sudden, and now he has to wait for Melanie in the house that could have been his with the man that could have very well been his father figure in the too-perfect fantasy world he’s been building up in his head.

“I’m Alister,” he says, holding out his chubby hand. 

“Finnick,” he says.

“Weird name,” Alister says, sitting down on a weathered brown arm chair. He gestures to the couch sitting underneath the window sill. “Sit if you want. She’d usually be home already but I think she went to the store. Were you planning on staying for dinner?”

“I don’t believe that was part of the plan,” Finnick says, sitting down and looking around at the photos on the coffee table and hung on the dark blue wall in front of him. Everything about the room seems dark and dirty and yet he felt weirdly at home, like he could imagine sitting on this couch with Alister on Sundays drinking cheap beer and watching Padres games. It was probably because Finnick never felt like he had parental figures, so in his head it’s easy for him to skew even the most fucked up situations into something romantic. This run-down house with this smelly and slightly rude guy, those kids who will never be his siblings, even if they do share a mother. Finnick looks down at his phone. He needs to get out of here. And quick.

He stands up. Normally he could text Nat and ask him to call him so he could fake an important phone call, but he’s too anxious to even do that at this point. He just wants to get out of there before Melanie gets back. “On second thought,” Finnick says. “I just remembered I needed to get to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription before it closes. I’ll just talk to Melanie tomorrow. Thank you,” he says, standing up.

Alister narrows his eyes again but just looks at him. “Whatever floats your boat, Kid. You look pretty young to be working at an accountin’ firm…”

Finnick shrugs. “I’m twenty-two… Got a job right out of college.”

“And that name,” he continues. “Melanie told me when she was younger she wanted to name her son Finnick. She wanted to name Seamus that but I wasn’t having it…”

Finnick nodded and started for the door. “That’s… That’s a strange coincidence,” he said reaching for the doorknob. 

“And Melanie always tells me when she’s having visitors over from work. They never just drop in unannounced…”

Finnick pulls open the door and he’s face to face with Melanie.

“Finnick!” she yells, stepping back slightly. “I thought you said we were meeting up tomorrow!”

Finnick breathes a sigh of relief. Alister was onto him, but Melanie may have just saved him with that one simple phrase. “I was just about to go. I really need to get home and I really don’t want to disturb you at home,” he explains, trying to squeeze past her.

“Nonsense! Come to the kitchen with me. I have to put these groceries away and we can talk about what we discussed in today’s meeting.” She hurries him into the kitchen and shuts the door. “What are you doing here?” she whispers. 

“I don’t know! I wasn’t thinking.”

“What do you need? Money?”

“No…”

“Then what? I don’t want any of them knowing about you okay?”

“Why not?”

“Because that part of my life was a mistake, Finnick. I just want to forget it even happened. I want to forget all about your father and high school and all of that stuff.”

Finnick feels like he’s been punched in the gut and he wishes he could just disappear. He should have never come to California and he should have never come to this house. He thought he was strong enough for this, to have a new start, but he would never be strong enough. “So I’m a mistake?"

“Finnick,” she says, a little softer this time. “I didn’t-“

“That’s exactly what you meant.” He goes for the door and Alister is standing on the other side.

“Who are you?”

“Al,” Melanie pleads. “Don’t worry about it.”

“No, who are you?”

“I’m her son,” Finnick spits out. “But don’t worry. I’m a mistake so you won’t ever have to see me again.”

Melanie calls after him but he runs out the door and straight for his car. He doesn’t even bother to put on his seatbelt. He just turns off the block and parks his car down the other street. He rests his head on top of the steering wheel and starts sobbing. He pulls the business card and piece of paper out of his pocket and tears it into shreds. He rolls down the window and throws it into the street before rolling the window back up. This was all a mistake. California. Melanie. His foster parents. And him. To think he could go back and face it all like he was completely reformed or something. He was still as weak as when he left. He was the biggest mistake of all. 

 


	5. I Promise No One Will Ever Beat You

Finnick went home and immediately dug through his suitcase, pulling out all of his clothes in the process. He found the small ziplock bag at the bottom of all of his clothes stuffed in one of his shoes. Nat had given him a bag of edibles to bring with him. At first, Finnick had said no. He hadn’t smoked or really even eaten anything since he had been with Annie. He used to smoke and drink at least twice a week. Sometimes he doesn’t know how he even got through college. 

He takes out the bottle of vodka he bought on the way home and then the bottle of rum. He puts the rum under his bed and opens the vodka. He considers going downstairs to get something to chase it with, but his family might be home by now and he really doesn’t want to face them. He takes a swig straight out of the bottle and then opens the plastic bag. He takes a bite out of the brownie, not even caring that they’re probably potent; not even caring that he’s going to have to have dinner with his family while he’s probably visibly crossfaded. 

He closes the ziplock bag and pushes it under his bed with all of his clothes and the bottle of rum. He takes the bottle of vodka, gets into bed, and crawls under the covers. Then he starts sobbing. He feels helpless. He hadn’t known until that moment, when his birth mom called him a mistake, how much he had been banking on this relationship. He totally thought he didn’t care what the outcome with his birth mom was, but now he realizes that subconsciously he had really cared. That subconsciously he wanted a place where he felt like he belonged, and for some reason he felt like it was there with that family.

He hears a knock on his door calling him to dinner and he rolls over and pretends to be asleep.

***

“I miss you,” Madge says, for probably the tenth time since she started Skyping Annie. “I hate that you get to go back to Boston tomorrow and I have to stay here in this Hell Hole.”

“It’s really only because of my internship,” Annie says. “Plus, aren’t you interning for that fashion magazine?”

“Yeah, but I miss Boston.”

“You mean you miss a certain tall brown haired, grey eyed man named Gale Hawthorne,” Annie jokes.

Madge sighs. “Well, yeah.”

“Just be glad you’re a four hour bus ride away,” Annie says. “I’m not even a four hour _plane ride_ away.”

“Touche,” Madge says. “This is going to be the longest you’re going to spend apart.”

“Don’t remind me,” Annie groans.

“It will be good for you. Distance makes the heart grow fonder.”

“Take your own advice,” Annie teases.

“You’re not letting me get away with any of this,” Madge laughs. “You should come visit me for my birthday.”

“Why don’t you come visit me?” Annie suggests. “You can come see Gale.”

Madge rolls her eyes. “You really think Annalise Undersee is going to let her daughter spend her birthday away from her family? Away from her twin? And in the same city as her fiancé?”

“True,” Annie says. “But I don’t really know if I want to stay in your house…” she trails off. 

“Seb still?”

Annie nods. “Maybe the Everdeens or the Hawthornes or the Mellarks will let me stay with them.”

Madge nods and sighs. “I wouldn’t let him do that again.”

Annie just looks at her. “I know but…” She stops. Last New Year’s Eve she had spent it with the Undersees. At midnight, Sebastian just kissed Annie without asking her, thinking she wanted it and that it was okay. Annie didn’t give him permission and ever since then, she had felt uncomfortable around him. She had always considered Sebastian to be the brother she never had, but after that night, she could barely stand to be in the same room with him.

“Did you ever tell Finnick?”

Annie shook her head. “I don’t know if he would want me hanging around him if he knew.”

“He didn’t mean it, Annie.”

“But he still did it, didn’t he? Listen, Madge. I don’t care what his intentions were. All I know is he assaulted me and I can barely be around him anymore.”

“I wouldn’t call that assault.”

“He touched me without my permission, Margaret. That’s assault.”

“Alright, no need to first name me,” she snaps. 

“I’m going to go, Annika.”

Annie was hitting the end call button before she could say anything else. She slams her laptop shut and feels like she can barely breathe. She puts her hands over her ears and shuts her eyes and just concentrates on breathing. But she feels his lips on hers and she can’t breathe again and she feels like her throat is closing up and she wishes she could be anywhere but here. She wishes she could be with Finnick. She could crawl into his arms and run her hands through his hair and smell the saltwater and cologne on him. She could bury her face in his neck and feel his soft skin and cry as he ran his hands up and down her back. He was always so gentle and her chest ached knowing she couldn’t be with him right now. 

She picks up her phone and calls him but there’s no answer. She tries again and the same thing happens. She checks the clock but it’s only five there. He should probably be awake. Her mom knocks on the door. “Annie, dinner!”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I have a headache.” But really, she couldn’t breathe and the person who always helped her the most was thousands of miles away.

***

Madge shuts her laptop and throws it across her bed as if it was what she was mad at. She sees a text from Gale and immediately smiles. _Any chance of seeing that pretty face of yours?_

She can feel herself blush. Even though they had been dating for years, he never failed to make her smile like a seven year old with a brand new crush. She opens the laptop again and tries to ignore Annie’s picture that’s still on the screen from her previous call. She clicks on Gale’s contact and adjusts the screen of her laptop so he can see her. The screen switches to his face and she immediately smiles. “Hey, Babe,” she greets. “How are you doing?”

“Finally told my mom about the engagement.”

“Wait? She didn’t know?”

“I didn’t exactly propose when I had originally planned, so no, she didn’t know.”

Madge sighs feeling slightly guilty that Gale’s plan to propose ended up causing such a mess. “How did she react?”

“She’s excited. I think she wants the wedding to be upstate though. Where my Uncle lives. I told her she would have to take that up with Annalise.”

Madge scoffs. “That’s a conversation I’d like to hear.”

Gale nods. “I think Ma’s afraid of your mom.”

“Everyone’s afraid of Mom,” a third voice cuts in. She looks up to see her twin leaning in her doorframe. He’s wearing sweatpants and no shirt, and his hair is sticking to his forehead. He must have just showered. 

“What do you want, Seb?”

“Just looking for my daily dose of reality TV. Keeping Up with the Hawthornes.”

Madge rolls her eyes. “What do you want, Seb?” she repeats, the frustration more evident in her voice this time.

“Dinner.”

“I don’t want to eat.”

He narrows his eyes at her. “You know Mom’s not going to let that slide again. Not since last summer.”

“Tell her I ate when I was out with Lissa.”

He crosses his arms. “I’m not condoning this.”

“I just had a fight with my best friend, Sebastian!” she snaps. “So _excuse me_ for not always wanting to be the perfect little daughter who sits down at the dinner table and makes polite conversation with her perfect family.”

“I’ll tell her you ate,” he mumbles, turning around and shutting the door on his way out.

“You okay?” Gale asks. Madge shakes her head and bites her lip to keep from crying. “You know they just worry about you.”

“I’m sick of it, Gale. You worry about me, but you don’t treat me like this. They treat me like I’m going to end up in a hospital again if I skip one fucking meal.”

“You missed a whole semester of school, Madge. They’re just trying to make sure you’re okay.”

“Well, I’m not okay. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to starve myself.”

“Listen, don’t take it out on me,” he says. She can hear how tired he sounds. Did he sound that tired before?

“Not you too,” she pleads. “I can’t take you getting mad at me too.”

He sighs. “I’m not mad. I’m sorry.” He pauses. “What happened with Annie.”

“She got all defensive about staying with me for my birthday because of Seb.”

“She can stay with me,” he offers.

She sighs. “I feel like it’s my fault that it happened. And I snapped at her and tld her she was overreacting, when really I just feel guilty that my brother and my best friend can’t even be in the same room together anymore.”

“You said she was okay at New Years.”

“Yeah, but who knows if that will happen this time. That was a party with fifty people. She’ll be staying at my house with him for two or three days. I don’t think she can handle that. Plus, she’s been a mess since Finnick moved…” She trails off.

“You were going to continue that sentence.”

“Don’t worry about it.” He narrows his eyes and she knows she’s not going to get away with being silent. “I just think they’re a little codependent okay? I worry about her. I worry that she can barely survive without him.”

“Don’t you think that’s a little hypocritical?”

She sighs. “I can live without you. I don’t let me mental stability completely unravel just because I’m away from you.”

“Alright. I’m not going to fight with you.”

She looks at him. “Whatever. Love you.”

“Love you. Take care of yourself, okay?” She nods and hangs up. She looks at her phone and sees a text from Annie. _I’m sorry. I love you and I want to stay with you for your birthday._ Madge just plugs her phone into the charger and lets the text go unanswered.

***

Annie steadies her hands, wishing that Finnick or Madge or any of her friends with her right now. She’s going to go into that apartment and there’s going to be a person in there that she never met. He’s going to have been there for three days so he’ll be sufficiently settled in at this point. Was he going to have a girl in there? Was he going to be wearing clothes? Was the apartment going to be clean?

Johanna knew him from school and Gale knew him from work and they both liked him so she was hoping it would all work out. Plus, the last time she roomed with a friend of Johanna’s it certainly worked out. She obviously didn’t want this situation to work out that well though. 

She opened the door and looked around. The apartment was peaceful. There wasn’t a rager going on. Nothing was on fire. She dragged her suitcase towards her room and took a deep breath when she stepped in. The last time she was in this room, she was with Finnick. It still smelled like him. She clutches onto the door frame and closes her eyes. She wishes he was with her. He had been busy searching for apartments the past few days, so they hadn’t talked other than texting in a while. She missed the sound of his voice. Even that was enough to calm her.

“I thought I heard someone come in. And since I’m hoping you didn’t give our keys out to any drug dealers or criminals, I had a feeling it was you,” a voice says from behind her. She turns around to see a tall man standing behind her. He’s probably about two inches shorter than Finnick, so maybe only 5’7”, but he looks a lot broader than Finnick, closer to Peeta in that respect. He has a scruffy brown beard growing and dark green-brown eyes. His hair is slightly long, a little past his ears and it’s such a dark brown that it’s almost black. “Nice ta meetcha, Roomie,” he says, sticking his hand out. “I’m Thom.” His hands completely dwarf hers, but she shakes it anyway. “I did some grocery shopping while you were away. I hope that’s okay.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

“Sorry, I should let you settle in. I’m having a few friends over later, but we’ll be quiet.” He goes into his room and Annie takes a deep breath and goes into her room. She shuts the door and sinks onto the bed. He seems nice enough and he seems to have his life a lot more together than Finnick did, but she never did well with first impressions. She always mulled over every detail, trying to figure out if the person hated her or not. 

She feels her phone vibrate in her pocket. Finnick. _Back home._

_Yup,_ she sends back, laying back on the bed. It feels empty without both Finnick and Poseidon. Poseidon had been staying with Nat, who was supposed to bring him back soon. While the cat definitely had a preference for Finnick, he was still good company. 

_Meet the roommate?_

_Yeah. He bought groceries. So far he’s better than you._

_Looks like I’ve got some competition._ She smiles.

_I promise no one will ever beat you._

She hears a knock on her door and Thom pops his head in. “Hey, I made risotto last night if you want to heat some of that up.”

Annie texts Finnick. _On second thought, he made risotto._

Annie hears a knock on her door and runs to get it. Thom is rummaging through various tupperware containers in the kitchen, so she knows she’ll get to it first. She opens it to see Nat standing there with a backpack and a cat carrier. “I have reluctantly brought your kitten back to you,” he says as she steps aside to let him in the apartment. He puts the carrier on the ground and opens it. Poseidon immediately steps out and looks around. Annie picks him up and pets him. “You got so big,” she coos. “What has Nat been feeding you.” She looks at Nat. “Thanks.”

He nods but Annie can tell he’s distracted by Thom, who is emptying the contents of a tupperware onto a plate. “You must be Thom,” Nat says, crossing the living room to go over and shake his hand. “I’m Nat. Finnick’s friend.”

“You look familiar.”

“I don’t believe we’ve ever met before.”

“Do you have a sister? I could of sworn I knew a girl who looked almost exactly like you. It’s uncanny.”

“N-no,” Nat says, looking at him. “No sister.”

“What’s your last name?”

“Hendrix.”

“Natalie. Natalie Hendrix.”

“That must be a coincidence.”

Thom shrugs, but Annie can tell he’s not convinced. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“Poseidon’s stuff is in the backpack,” Nat says. “See you later, Annie. Nice meeting you, Thom,” he says, hurrying out the door.

“That was weird,” Annie says, gathering Poseidon’s stuff so she can put it in her room.

“Yeah,” Thom says. “Weird.”

Nat leaves the apartment and leans against the wall. He takes out his phone and texts Finnick. _Thom knows me,_ he texts him. Then he adds, _But not as Nathaniel._

_***_

Annie takes a break from the show she was watching and looks at the time on her laptop. She should probably get dinner. She gets out of her bed and goes into the kitchen, but quickly realizes that Thom and his friends are sitting in the living room. “Hey, come join us,” Thom says. He takes a long swig out of the beer in his hand and puts his arm around the tall girl sitting next to him. He points to a guy sitting in the arm chair. He’s asian and has long hair, even longer than Annie’s. “That’s Will.” He gestures to the short girl with curly brown hair and light brown eyes. “Emily.” He gestures to the girl he has his arm around. She’s probably the tallest girl Annie’s ever seen, though she can’t totally tell because she’s sitting down. She has light brown skin and it’s so clear and smooth that Annie almost wants to ask her what skin products she uses. Her hair is short and dark brown and she smiles at Annie and Annie automatically feels less nervous about meeting these people. “Naomi,” Thom introduces. “Guys, this is Annie.”

“Hi, Annie,” they all chorus.

Annie sits on the floor, putting her back up against the wall.

“You’re still in college right?” Thom asks.

Annie nods. “Senior. Emerson.”

Thom nods. “Will went to Suffolk,” Thom says, referencing Emerson’s next door neighbor.

“What happened to the people who used to live here?” Emily asks. 

“Emily, you don’t ask that,” Will says. He looks over at Annie. “Excuse, Em. She gets stupid when she’s drunk.”

“Excuse, Will,” Emily mimics. “He’s stupid when he’s sober.”

Annie laughs. “My boyfriend used to live here. But he moved to California.”

“I’m from California!” Emily pipes up. “Where in California?”

“Los Angeles.”

Emily wrinkles her nose. “Gross. LA.”

Annie looks at her. “What’s wrong with LA?”

“Emily hates the Dodgers and anything associated with Los Angeles.”

Annie nods, knowing that Madge is the same way with the Yankees. Madge looks like a girly girl, but she has a huge passion for the Yankees. So much so that she almost chose to deny Emerson because she didn’t want to go to college in Boston. But she fell in love with the school and the city and that’s where she ended up. “You guys still dating?” Will asks.

“Sure, and I ask the nosey questions,” Emily says flatly.

Annie nods. “Yeah.”

“That’s rough,” Thom comments. “That’s so far.” Annie nods. Thombends down. “Want a beer?” Annie nods and he passes it to her. Thom raises his half empty bottle when Annie opens hers. “To new friendships.”

Annie takes a drink. She hates beer, but any alcohol was welcome at that point. _I’ll drink to that._


	6. I Promise I Still Love You

“Annie, I need to talk to you, but you’re not picking up your phone and I can’t hold this in anymore. I’m sorry I’ve been off the grid lately. I haven’t been looking for apartments. I’ve been… I fucked up. I saw my birth mom. I saw her over spring break and then I saw her again and I feel like I’m right back to where I started.” His voice cracks. “God, Ann. She told me I was a mistake. She made me feel like she would be so much happier if I hadn't been born. And… Annie, I’m sorry. I can’t be with you anymore. I can’t be in a relationship where I feel like I’m holding you back. I’m always the reason you’re hurting. I’m always the reason you’re sad. I can’t do this to you anymore.” He starts crying. “I can’t do this anymore. I promise I still love you. But you deserve better than this.” He hangs up and throws the phone on the bed. He turns around and his mom is standing in the doorway. “How much of that did you hear?”

She goes to hug him. “The whole thing.” She pulls away and looks at him with sad eyes. “I don’t think you’re a mistake, Finnick.”

He doesn’t know how to feel about this woman. About this woman who loves him, but abused him so much when he was a kid. About this woman who continues to deny it even after all these years. “How can you say that?” he practically spits.

She looks hurt. “What do you mean?”

“Do you remember any of it?” He goes and sits on his bed, barely able to look at her.

“What, Finnick?”

“What you used to do to me?” He’s crying harder now. “Do you know how much that fucks someone up? When they realize that their mother used them for sex?”

She looks down. “Finnick, I-“

“I shouldn’t have come here. This was a bad idea. There are too many memories here.”

“Finnick-“

“Who else do you do it to?” he asks, looking up at her. “Do you do it to Nelson and Xander and Liam? Is it the girls too?”

“Enough, Finnick.”

“Why? Is it too much to hear? That you assaulted your foster son? I’m sorry it’s so hard for you to hear, but you know what? I can’t keep acting like it didn’t happen.”

He looks up and he sees his foster dad standing behind them. “We need to learn to shut these fucking doors,” Finnick says as he sees the absolute pain in his dad’s eyes. That couldn’t have been easy for him to hear, but Finnick felt so free now that he finally said it.

***

Annie wakes up and immediately walks into the kitchen. “Morning.”

She runs the sleep from her eyes and sees Thom sitting there. “Morning, Thom.”

“Coffee?” he slides a mug across the counter. 

“You’re certainly a productive roommate.”

“I like keeping things neat.” She goes into the cabinet and pulls out the sugar. She stares at it for a second. “Something wrong?”

“It reminds me of Finnick,” she says.

“The sugar?” He laughs and sits in one of the chairs at the kitchen table. “Why? Did you call him sugar?”

Annie rolls her eyes. “No, he just used a disgusting amount of sugar. He would turn the canister around and count to twelve. When we went to restaurants and they had unsweetened iced tea, he would ask for simple syrup from behind the bar.”

“I drink my coffee without sugar.”

“He told me to never trust anymore who drinks coffee without sugar.”

Thom laughs. “Really now?”

She nods and puts the sugar in her coffee and then goes to the fridge to get creamer. “Your girlfriend didn’t stay over?”

“My girlfriend?” he asks, obviously confused.

“Naomi,” she says, remembering how he draped his arm over her last night. She just assumed they were dating.

“Oh,” he says. “No, we’re not dating. We’re just close.”

“Oh,” she says, stirring her coffee and watching it turn from black to tan. 

“I haven’t dated anyone in a while.”

“Why not?”

“That’s a weird question to ask someone you just met.”

She shrugs. “You don’t have to answer.”

“I guess the short answer is I haven’t found anyone I like.”

“The long answer?”

“We’re going to need to be less sober for that.”

She nods and goes into her room. She pets Poseidon who is sleeping on Finnick’s side of the bed where his pillow would be and grabs her phone. She sees five missed calls and a voicemail from Finnick. They were all from last night after she had gone to sleep. Her heart stops. She hopes he’s okay. 

She sits on her bed and listens to it. At first, she starts crying just from hearing his voice. Her chest aches; she misses him so much. Then she hears the pain in his voice. What’s wrong? Is he okay. Then his whole message and she’s crying and she’s calling him and he’s not picking up. Thom must have heard her crying because he appears almost immediately. “Shit, what’s wrong?”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re obviously not,” he says, sitting next to her on the bed.

“Finnick broke up with me,” she cries out. “And it’s because he doesn’t think he’s good enough for me and we’ve had this argument before and he did it over voice mail…” She trails off, unable to speak anymore and just starts heaving. Thom wraps his arms around her and holds her close to his chest. 

“I’m going to call up Emily, Will, and Naomi and we’re going to go on a hike to our favorite spot in the whole state okay? We’re going to bring a lot of alcohol and we can all hang out and get piss drunk on a Sunday and complain about how unfair love is. Sound good?”

Annie nods and stops crying slightly. “Yeah.”

“I’m going to call them and make sandwiches and you should go take a shower and calm down a bit.”

Annie nods and he goes to go back to the kitchen.

“Thom?”

He turns back. “Yeah?”

“Thanks.”

He smiles. “Don’t mention it.”

***

Thom goes into the kitchen and texts his group chat with his friends. “Drunk hike today? Annie’s boyfriend broke up with her.” He gets replies from his friends a few minutes later and they all seem on board. He’s pulling out bread and turkey for the sandwiches when there’s a knock on the door. He opens it and sees Nat standing there.

“Oh, hey,” Nat says, getting visibly nervous when he sees Thom. “Um, is Annie here?”

“She’s in the shower.”

Nat hands him a bag. “I forgot to bring back a few cans of Poseidon’s food. Just give them to her.” He turns and is about to walk out.

“Wanna go on a hike?” Thom blurts out.

Nat turns around and just looks at him. “Annie and me and a few of my friends are going to get drunk and go hike. We do it a lot. It’s fun. You should… uh… you should join us.”

“I dunno.”

“I’m sorry about yesterday. I shouldn’t have pried.”

“You’re right you know?”

“What?”

“Natalie. That’s me…Was me.” He takes a deep breath. “Annie doesn’t know. I don’t know her that well and I didn’t know how to tell her. I didn’t see the big deal in keeping it from her.”

“I know now,” Annie says from behind Thom.

Nat looks down. “Fuck,” he curses.

Thom just grimaces and gestures for him to come in. Annie is standing there in a towel, running a brush through her wet hair. “Sorry,” Thom apologizes.

“I’m not mad, Nat. I don’t care. I’m glad you kind of told me,” she admits.

Nat smiles. “Thanks.” He looks at Thom. “Yeah, I’ll come on that hike.”

***

“I’ve called him five times. Either he’s sleeping or he’s ignoring both of us,” Nat says taking a swig from the vodka bottle he had grabbed from his house before they left. Annie told Nat about Finnick’s voicemail and they had both been trying to call him ever since.

“Just give it a rest,” Will says. “Let’s just drink and be free today.” Emily was driving because she was the only one with a car big enough to fit them all and she also volunteered to be the designated driver and not drink as much as the rest of them. Will was sitting next to her navigating but the pair seemed to be doing more arguing than anything else.

Naomi was sitting in the bucket seat in the second row and Annie was sitting in the other. They had shoved Thom and Nat in the back and the two were passing the bottle of vodka back and forth. Annie had mixed rum and coke in a water bottle before she left and was sipping on that.

“Don’t get too drunk before we get to the trail,” Emily warns, mainly talking to the two guys in the back. “You don’t want to be tripping up the trail.”

“Yes, Mom,” Thom groans.

They get to the trail and Emily parks the car. “How long is the trail?” Annie asks, switching to water so she wouldn’t get too drunk before they got to the end. 

“About three miles,” Will says.

“I hate exercise,” Nat groans.

“Want me to carry you?” Thom jokes.

Nat rolls his eyes and Thom laughs and puts the bottle of vodka in his backpack. “How do you guys know each other?” Annie asks Thom and Nat.

“Camp,” Thom says. “We both lived in the same state. We went to the same sleep away camp.”

“Yeah, but I stopped going after elementary school,” Nat says.

“I stayed all the way up and became a counselor.”

“Jesus, you were one of those kids?” Nat asks.

Thom nods. “I liked my camp friends better than my school friends.”

Nat nods and looks at Thom briefly before looking at the ground. “Yeah, me too.”

“How did the rest of you meet?” Annie asks as they all head up the trail.

Thom looks around. “I met Em and Naomi at Northeastern. Em and Will were high school sweethearts but now they’re broken up and they serve as the divorced parents of our group as you might have already been able to tell. Will was the only one who went to Suffolk but the people at Suffolk suck so he chose to hang out with us instead. Now we’ve all graduated and we’ve chosen to stay in Boston and get actual adult jobs. That’s how I met Gale and that’s how I met you.”

“Wait, you know Gale Hawthorne?” Will asks.

“Oh, God,” Emily says, rolling her eyes.

“What?” Annie asks.

“Will is in love with Madge Undersee.”

Annie laughs. “You’re kidding.”

“Nope,” Emily says. “He went to Thom’s work one day during his lunch break and she was there visiting Gale. It’s been about four months and sometimes he still talks about marrying her.”

“She’s my best friend,” Annie says, laughing. “She’s also engaged.”

“A guy can dream okay?” Will says, laughing. But Annie knew he was mainly joking.

They spend the hike passing around alcohol and granola bars until they get up to this grassy cliffside that looks out to the city in the distance. “Last stop, Kiddos,” Thom says, sitting down. They all put their bags down and sit on the ground.

“Wow,” Annie breathes out, taking in the view. “This is amazing.”

“I’ve seen better,” Nat says, laughing.

Thom rolls his eyes. “Oh can it, Hendrix. You’re making me regret inviting you.”

“How often do you guys do this?” Annie asks as Thom hands out the sandwiches he made.

“Probably once a month when it’s nice out,” Will says.

Annie looks over at Naomi who hasn’t said a word since she met her last night. She wonders if that’s normal.

Thom pulls the bottle of vodka out of his bag and hands it to Nat. She remembers Thom putting his own alcohol in his bag before they left and wonders why he won’t drink his own. “Should we play a game?” Thom asks.

“How about would you rather?” Em asks. She was drinking something out of a metal water bottle that Annie assumed was water, but every once in a while she would take a sip of whatever Will was drinking.

“Em,” Thom says. “Would you rather date me or get back together with Will?”

She glares at him. “That’s not fair.”

Thom laughs. “No passes.”

“You,” she says. 

“Hurtful,” Will says. 

“Oh, drink your whiskey,” she responds, not even phased by him.

“Thom,” Emily says, looking at him. Annie can tell she’s ready for revenge. “Would you rather date Nat or talk to Bristel again?”

Thom looks at her for a long time. “Why would you even…”

Will looks at her. “That’s a stupid question. You know he would choose Bristel.”

Thom gets up. “I’m going to take a leak.”

“Who’s Bristel?” Annie asks when he’s gone.

“The last person Thom dated,” Naomi speaks up. “He fell in love with her when he came to college. She was a senior and he was a freshman.”

“They were exact opposites,” Will explains. “Thom was organized and good in school and Bristel would always skip class and smoke and drink.” Annie was immediately reminded of her and Finnick.

“They fell in love really fast,” Naomi continues. “They were only dating for about a year and everyone knew they would eventually get married. But then Bristel was in a motorcycle accident on Christmas Eve. She was killed. Thom hasn’t dated anyone since.”

“It was stupid of me to ask,” Emily says, getting up. “I’m going to see if he’s okay.”

Thom comes back and no one says anything. “It was our anniversary today,” he says after a long time. “We would have been together for five years. I probably would have proposed already.”

There’s a long silence and Nat gets up to go pee. “Do you think you could see yourself getting back out there?” Annie asks in an attempt to fill the silence. 

Thom looks at the spot where Nat was previously sitting. “Maybe.”

Will says something to Emily and she curses at him and shoves him away. Thom rests his head on Naomi’s shoulder. “Thanks for this, guys,” Annie says. “I needed this.” 

***

When Annie gets home she has twelve missed calls from Finnick and a dew texts from her mother and Madge. She decides to ignore Finnick and call Madge first. “Finnick and I broke up,” she says. “Kind of. He broke up with me over voicemail.” She pauses. “And I’m really really sorry about the other day.”

“Me too,” Madge says. “I love you, Annie. I just want you around for my birthday and I feel guilty for what happened with you and Seb.” She sighs. “I’m sorry about Finnick. Gale told me. Johanna told him. Finnick must have called her. Just give him some space. This is all about him. This isn’t about you.”

“Then why does it hurt me so bad?”

“Because love sucks.”


	7. I Promise I'll Be Here for You

“You’re lucky I picked up.”

Finnick sighs. “Nat, Annie won’t pick up.”

“Give her time, you asshole. You broke up with her.”

“I know.”

“What the fuck is wrong with you? Don’t you know a good thing when you have it?” 

“Nat, I can’t be here anymore.”

“Dude, what the hell is going on? You shouldn’t have gone out there.” He sighs. “Do you need me to come get you?” 

“Nat, that’s crazy.”

“You’ve started every single sentence with my name. You’re obviously having a rough time.”

“I’ll probably come home sooner than I thought. I don’t know what to do.”

“You call Annie, you apologize for being an ass, and you get back together with her.”

“I shouldn’t be with her. She deserves better than me.”

Nat rolls his eyes and puts his phone on speakerphone. He has a feeling this is going to be a long call and he’s getting tired of holding his phone up to his ear. “Do you hear yourself? You’re an idiot.”

“I’m a mistake, Nat. My mom said it herself. I’m a mistake.”

“She’s not your mom, Finnick! Yeah, she gave birth to you, but she’s not your mom. Listen, I know your mom did fucked up shit to you, but she’s your mom. She took you in. She raised you. She loves you. Fuck your birth mom, okay? She doesn’t deserve you. But don’t take this out on Annie. Annie loves you.” Nat sighs. “And I know you love her.”

“But she’s so much better than me.”

“A relationship shouldn’t be about who’s better, Finnick. It’s not a fucking competition. But let me tell you, if it was, I wouldn’t count yourself out so fast. You’re smart, Finn. And you’re funny. You’re an amazing swimmer; you could have gone to the Olympics if you really wanted that. You work harder than anyone I’ve ever known when you put your mind to it. You can drink me under a table any day of the week and you make a great cocktail. You also make good coffee, even if you put too much sugar in it. You put up walls but you have such a big heart. You’re so caring and everyone who you choose to keep in your life is lucky to have you.” Nat sighs, feeling sort of choked up. He was still kind of drunk from the hike and he was feeling truthful. Plus, he knew Finnick needed to hear this. “When I first met you-“

“Nat, you alright?”

“Let me finish, you asshole. Jesus, are you going to interrupt me at your own funeral too?” Finnick laughs and Nat takes that as a good sign. “As I was saying… when I first met you I had just been kicked out of my house and had to move to Massachusetts with an aunt I barely knew. She was giving me all this money and expecting nothing in return and I didn’t feel like I was worth it. I didn’t see why someone who barely knew me should take a chance on me. And then I was visiting a friend at Northeastern and I met this obnoxiously loud and very friendly boy at a coffee shop. He was the “I’m pretty and I know it” kind of boy and he had just written his number on a girl’s coffee cup. But by some weird game of chance, that coffee cup got mixed up with mine, so being the asshole I am, I texted this guy pretending to be a girl and then met up with him a week later.”

Finnick laughs. “Oh, God. I was so mad at you.”

“Yeah, but I got a best friend.”

“You were so scrawny then. You’ve come a long way.”

“Drugs do that. Not all drugs are bad,” he jokes. “So have you.”

“I thought you were mad at me for dating Annie though?”

“I was mad at you because I felt left out. I wasn’t mad at you for dating Annie. I’ve been your best friend for years and all of a sudden this girl waltzes into your life and I never see you. But I’d be stupid and selfish if that was a reason for me to tell you not to get back together with her. Anyone paying attention can see how much you love each other, and honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if you guys got married. She loves you, Finnick.”

“That’s easy for you to say. She probably hates me.”

“If she hates you, she’s stupid. But she definitely doesn’t hate you. She’d be stupid to lose you, Finnick.”

“How would you know? It’s not like you’re in love with me.” Nat is caught by surprise by the sudden accusation. He doesn’t know if Finnick meant it as a joke, but either way it’s out there and the words just fall into the space between them as all that follows is silence. “Nat?” Nat says nothing. “Jesus Christ, Nathaniel. Say something.”

“You’d think you would have figured out earlier.”

***

Annie wakes up and sees she has four missed calls from Finnick. He’ll most likely be asleep right now but that doesn’t stop her from almost hitting the screen to call him back. She shakes her head and throws her phone across the bed, scaring Poseidon as it lands a few inches away from him. He gets up, stretches, and then lays back down in a spot a few inches away from his original position. 

Annie grabs some clothes from the drawers in the dresser. She opens the bottom one where Finnick used to put his things. She sees a piece of paper and is about to close the drawer, but out of curiosity she picks it up. It’s folded and there are multiple creases as if the person who folded it didn’t fold it evenly the first few times and kept opening it back up until the edges were perfectly even. She’s about to open it when she hears voices coming from the living room. This peaks her interest more than the note and she puts it on the kitchen counter as she walks out of the room so she can grab it later.

She expects to see Emily, Naomi, and Will, but instead Nat and Thom are sitting on the couch together. “Hey, Nat,” Annie says slowly. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, I slept here,” he says as if it was completely normal. “We were up late watching TV and I drank a bit so we decided it would be safer for me to crash on the couch.” 

“Hope that’s okay,” Thom says.

“Yeah, totally,” Annie says, pressing her lips into a thin line. She wasn’t sure how she felt about Nat since that day they fought in the car and now she could tell that Thom and Nat were getting really close. 

She goes to her room to get her clothes and completely forgets about the paper on the counter. Nat gets up to get a glass of water and picks up the piece of paper. “What is that?” Thom asks. 

Nat shrugs. “I don’t know.” He takes it and throws it out. 

“So are we going to grab lunch later?” Thom asks. 

Nat looks at him. He has been in love with Finnick basically since he met him. He barely dated anyone since he’s known Finnick. He felt like it wasn't fair to the people he dated; that he wouldn’t be able to give them his full love because he’s still in love with Finnick. Why would Thom be any different? But Thom did feel different. Even if they just ended up being friends at least maybe he could finally move on from Finnick. “Yeah,” Nat says. “That sounds great.”

***

Annie gets out of the shower and goes into her room. She sees her phone is ringing and grabs it. Her heart sinks when she sees it’s not Finnick and she realizes at that moment that she was wishing it was him. She sees it’s Madge and picks it up. “Hey, Babe,” she says. “How are you doing?”

“Alright,” Annie says. “I’m naked right now.”

“Scandalous,” Madge laughs. “Are you fucking your new roommate already?”

“Madge,” Annie groans. “I just got out of the shower.”

“Sorry,” she apologizes. “Anyway, I’m celebrating my birthday in two weeks and I’m inviting everyone and I’d like you to come. It’s going to be in some big hall and there’s going to be fancy food… You know how Undersee birthdays are.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“If you’re too uncomfortable I understand, but Katniss said you can stay with her instead of staying with me which would probably be good because you don’t want to be around Eileen Undersee when she’s planning a party. She’s already trying to take over the wedding planning. She’s driving me insane.” 

“Don’t worry. I’ll come. I miss you like crazy.”

“I miss you too. Have you seen Gale? How is he?”

Annie laughs. “I haven’t seen Gale. I’m sure you’ve heard from him more than I have. I’m meeting up with Jo today though.”

“That’s good. I haven’t really heard from her.”

“Yeah, we’ve been… bonding.”

“What are you going to do about Finnick?”

“He’s stopped calling. I ignored his calls for a few days. I can’t bring myself to call him but I think if he calls again I’ll pick up.”

“You’re going to get back together. Don’t worry.”

***

“Have you heard from Finnick?” Annie asks as she sips her coffee. They’re sitting in a coffee shop down the street from Johanna’s new apartment. It’s farther away from Annie and the others than the old one, but still pretty close. 

“Yeah, he’s been sending me angsty texts. You’ve been ignoring him.”

“Because he broke up with me!”

“Annie,” Johanna says, looking at her. “Let me tell you a thing about how Finnick Odair works. He pushes you away and that’s how you know he needs you the most. He needs you to call him and tell him that you still love him and want to be with him. Because right now he thinks that no one could ever love him and because you’re not responding, you’re telling him that’s true.”

“It’s not though.”

She raises an eyebrow. “Then tell him that.”

***

Annie gets into the apartment and goes into her room. She sits on the bed and clicks on Finnick’s name in her contacts. When he doesn’t pick up, she leaves a message. “Hey, Finnick…” She pauses, struggling to find the words. “Sorry that I’ve uh… I haven’t gotten back to you. I just needed some time. I don’t want to do this over message, so just call me back when you can okay? I promise I’ll be here for you. Through everything you’re going through. I love you… Bye.”

She sighs and lays face down on her bed and starts crying. She gets up after a few minutes and goes into the kitchen. Then she remembers the piece of paper that she found in the drawer. She looks around for it but can’t find it. She looks under the napkins and in the drawers but she can’t find it. Then she goes into the trash and sees it’s been changed since the morning. 

She sighs and goes to Thom’s room to see if maybe he had seen it, but his door is shut. She knocks and there’s not answer. “Must not be home,” she mumbles. She goes back to her room and sits on her bed. “Guess I’ll never find out what it was. It probably wasn’t even important.” But for some reason she can’t help but feel like it was.

***

Finnick pulls into the parking lot at one of his favorite beaches. He used to go there with his friends all the time, and when he got older he would drive there whenever he needed to escape the house; which was often. Sometimes he would skip class and go there as well. It’s close to sunset so he pulls on his hoodie and stuffs his phone in the pocket. He puts on his music and shoves in his ear buds so he can drown everyone out. 

He smoked before he came and he filled his water bottle with vodka. He takes it with him and takes a swig, shuddering as he swallows. He walks down the beach and finds the rocks he normally sits on. There’s a girl sitting there. He sighs. He can’t even have his old spot on the beach. When he gets closer, he realizes he recognizes her as Rebecca Glimmer, a girl from his high school. Most of the students just called her Glimmer, no one ever called her Rebecca. She was the captain of the girl’s lacrosse team and always had boys falling over her. With her blonde hair, green eyes, and the ability to be both sporty and downright sexy in a dress; she was every high school boy’s dream. He and Glimmer were fuck buddies for the majority of high school, until they went to prom together and she told him she loved him. He hoped he could pass by her and she wouldn’t see him, but he knew that was wishful thinking.

“Finnick? Finnick Odair?”

He takes out his earbuds and turns to her. “In the flesh.”

“Oh. My. God!” she shrieks. “I had no idea you were in California! You really need to use Facebook more!” She stands up and hugs him. He keeps his arms firmly planted at his sides. He really wasn’t in the mood to revisit old flames. “How are you doing? What have you been up to?”

“Glimmer, I’m not in the mood.”

“Oh,” she says. “You alright?”

“Yeah, I’m just cross faded as fuck right now and kind of want to watch the sunset and listen to music.”

“Here,” she says sitting down and patting the spot next to her. “Sit.”

“Alone,” he says.

“Listen, Finnick. I know we didn’t leave on the best note, but that was years ago. I’ve moved on okay? Don’t push me away because of something that happened in high school. Besides, you seem like you need a friend right now.”

He sits down and shoves his ear buds in his pocket. They sit in silence for a while, just watching the sky grow pink and orange as the sun descends behind the waves. Then he turns to her and holds out his bottle. “Want some?”

“I take it that’s not water?”

He shakes his head and she takes it from him and takes a few gulps before handing it back to him. “You haven’t changed a bit.”

“I’ve actually probably changed way more than you would expect.”

“Well, you’re still getting drunk on the beach.”

“So are you.”

“What are you doing back here?”

“Regretting everything.”

“Jesus, Finnick. Can’t you open up at all?”

“I met my birth mom and she told me I was a fucking mistake so I freaked out and broke up with my girlfriend because no matter what she tells me, I feel like I will _never_ be good enough for her. And I’m back in the house with my foster parents and my foster mother sexually assaulted me when I was a kid so being back here just reminds me of why I left. But I have a job here that I’m starting in a week so it would be stupid to quit before I even started, but all I want to do is get out of here. I also found out that my best friend resents my girlfriend because he’s apparently been in love with me since we met.” He turns to her. “Was I open enough for you?”

She nods. “I’m-“ He leans forward and kisses her. She puts her arms around his neck and kisses him back. He breaks away and is about to say something but he just kisses her again.


	8. I Promise We'll Get Through This

“You haven’t called me lately,” Laura says when she picks up the call from her daughter. “Too busy for your mother?”

Annie laughs. “You’re the one who didn’t pick up my last call. You’re probably been so busy with your new fiancé,” she teases.

“How’s Finnick?”

Annie takes a deep breath and bites her lip to keep from crying. “He’s not doing well. I don’t know what’s going on. But he’s going through some personal stuff… And he broke up with me.”

“Oh, Honey-“

“And I ignored him because I was selfish. He needed me the most. It was a cry for help. I just hope he can get back to me. I hope he can forgive me.”

“Just give him some time. You’ll get back together.”

Annie sits down on her bed and starts petting Poseidon. “Everyone keeps saying that. But what if we don’t? What if we just weren’t meant to be?”

“Then maybe you weren’t,” Laura says. “Listen, Sweetheart. I can’t tell you everything about love. Lord knows I’m not an expert. You’ll know it when you feel it. And from seeing you with Finnick those few times, I know you love him…And he loves you too.” She takes a deep breath. “I loved your father, but he was so hard to be with. The alcohol… that turned him into something that wasn’t him. He became a totally different person. And I know you said Finnick struggles with that too, but obviously that doesn’t mean he’s going to be like your father.” She sighs. “You just need to be there for him, Annie. Call him on the phone, Skype him, take a trip to California… I don’t know.”

“Take a trip to California?”

“Actually that one probably isn’t the best idea.”

“No actually…”

“Annika Cresta, if you go to California I swear to God-“

“Bye, Mom! Love you.”

“Annie, do not hang up I was just-“

Annie hangs up and grabs her laptops, immediately looking up flights. She finds one that would get her back the day of Madge’s birthday, so she decides to see if she could get one that flies into New York. Maybe if all goes well she can bring Finnick back for good and they can go back to Boston and be together again. “I promise we’ll get through this,” she says out loud. 

Poseidon stretches next to her and meows at her before laying next to her. “It will work. I have faith.”

***

Finnick gets up the next day with a pounding headache and a horrible feeling in his chest. He rolls over and groans then pulls the covers over his head. “As if I didn’t already hate myself enough.” 

He hears a knock on his door and he groans. “Finnick? Can I come in?”

“I have a feeling you’re going to anyway,” he mumbles. 

His mom sighs and he feels her sitting on his bed. He doesn’t even move from under the covers. “I think maybe you should go home,” she says. “It’s not that we don’t want you here, but your father and I talked about it and I think you’re better off in Massachusetts. We’ll send you money to support you while you get on your feet, but try to find a job there.” She sighs. “I can’t even begin to apologize for what I did. I don’t know what to say to you, Finnick. It’s not something I can ever forgive myself for. It’s not something I can even begin to explain to you because I can’t even explain it to myself. And I understand if you’d never forgive me.” He can hear her voice begin to crack. “But when you invited us to your graduation, I thought that was your way of beginning to forgive me… of letting us back into your lives. But now I see that it’s dangerous for you here. It’s not good for you to be back here. And I do want what’s best for you. So I’d understand if you never wanted to come back and if you’d never want to speak to me again… but I hope maybe we can still stay in touch.”

He pops his head out from under the covers. “I love you,” he says. “But yeah, I need to get home.” He puts his head in the pillows. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes since I’ve been here and I need to try to fix them.”

“Book a flight home. That’s your first step.”

***  


Finnick is woken up from a nap by the sound of his phone ringing. He rubs the sleep from his eyes thinking it’s either Nat or Annie, but is surprised when he sees the name “Madge Undersee” on his screen. He picks up anyway, hoping that something bad didn’t happen to Annie. He hasn’t heard from Annie in a while and it puts a bad feeling in his stomach to have Madge calling him. “Is everything okay?” Finnick asks without even saying hello.

“Yes, you worrier,” Madge says, laughing. “Don’t worry. I’m not calling to tell you that Annie died or ran off with some mysterious man.”

Finnick’s chest hurts just from the thought of it. “Shut up, Madge,” he says quietly.

There’s a pause. “Sorry. I was joking, Dude.”

“I know… I’m sorry. I’ve been off lately.”

“Yeah, Annie kind of filled me in. Not that she even knows that much because neither of you have been speaking to each other.”

“Is that what you’re calling me about? To chew my ear off for breaking your best friend’s heart? Because save it, Undersee. I’m not in the mood.”

“Okay, cool the angst, Sweetheart. I get it. You’re going through some shit. You shouldn’t have broken up with Annie over it, but I get it.” She pauses again. “But that’s not what I was really calling. I was calling because everyone is coming to New York next week for my birthday and I want you to come. I know it’s a long flight and it might be expensive but you can stay with Peeta’s family or something and I think everyone would enjoy having you there…”

He lays back in his pillows and closes his eyes for a second. “Yeah,” he says after thinking about it for a bit. “Yeah, that would be fun.”

“One condition though.”

“What?”

“Don’t tell Annie. I want it to be a surprise.”

“You’re surprising her on _your_ birthday?”

“What can I say? I’m generous.” He laughs. “And please call her. I haven’t spoken to her in a few days, but I know for a fact she misses you.” She pauses. “And I know you miss her too.”

“Yeah,” he says. _That’s an understatement._

“And Finnick?”

“And Madge?” he mocks.

“Take care of yourself.”

***

_Annie and Finnick are walking along the beach hand in hand. Annie’s wearing a light blue sundress and Finnick’s wearing shorts and he’s shirtless. They’re both barefoot and they’re splashing in the waves. He looks down and goes to kiss her. “Annie, I love you so-“ He’s about to finish his sentence but all of a sudden he’s being pulled away from her. He’s being pulled under the waves and no matter how hard Annie tries, she can’t reach him. He disappears from her grasp and she sinks into the water trying to find him but all she gets is fistfuls of sand. He’s gone._

Annie wakes up in the middle of the night and she can’t breathe. She reaches out to her side and the bed feels way too big. She remembers how it used to be when she would sleep with Finnick. Sometimes they would sleep cuddled up together, but other times they would sleep on their respective sides of the beds. But even just being able to wake up and feel that he was next to her made her feel safe. She still had Poseidon, who slept with her some nights, but the small cat didn’t quite fill up Finnick’s half of the queen bed. 

She sits up and breathes in and out a few times. She used to have nightmares a lot when she was a kid, especially after her father died. She was in therapy for a long time after her father died too. Your dad beating you up and locking you in a closet and then dying is definitely something that messes a kid up. 

She gets up to go to the bathroom and then decides to make herself some tea to calm herself down. She does her best to be quiet so she doesn’t wake Thom as she opens the cabinet to grab a mug. She picks a random one and sees it’s the first one that she and Finnick bought together. They had bought it two days into living together when Annie realized that Finnick didn’t have any mugs. He stole a few travel cups from work and brought them home for her and she yelled at him about how that wasn’t the way to live. The next day when she got home there was a blue mug that said “World’s Best Mom” on her counter. It had made her laugh so much and it even though she and Finnick had a rocky start when they first met, that was one of the moments when she realized he was a good person.

“Can’t sleep?”

The voice startles her and she drops the mug. It crashes to the tile floor and breaks into pieces. She stands there for a second just looking at the mug and then all of a sudden she starts to cry. Thom comes up behind her. “Annie?” he asks gently, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, I’m sorry I scared you.” She just cries harder and turns to face him. “Be careful. You don’t want to cut your feet. You’re barefoot.” She sits on the floor in front of the mug and carefully gathers all the pieces in a pile in front of her. He kneels in front of her, the broken mug in between them. “We can get a new one tomorrow. I’ll pay for it.”

“That’s… T-that’s not the point,” she sobs. “F-Finnick.”

“God, I’m sorry, Annie. He gave you this, didn’t he?” She nods. “I really didn’t mean it. I’m really sorry.” 

She looks into his eyes. They’re green, but nothing like Finnick’s. Thom’s are more brown, like the murky waters in some of the Florida beaches, while Finnick’s are more blue, like the sea you see on brochures and on Caribbean islands. But either way, she can tell he’s really sincere. She gets up and get’s a dustpan out of the bottom cabinet under the sink. She sweeps the mug into the pan and then puts it on the counter. “I’ll take care of this in the morning,” she says, finally calming down a little. “I’m not so sure I want to throw it out.”

Thom nods and gets up off the floor and gives her a hug. She rests her head against his shoulder and just stands there for a little while. Even though she hasn’t known Thom for a long time, she feels comfortable around him. She finally breaks away from the hug and goes to sit on the couch. “Want me to make you tea?” he asks. “I assume that’s what you were doing.”

She shakes her head. “I think I’m okay. I couldn’t sleep so I thought it would calm me down…” She trails off. “I feel like all I’ve done is cry in front of you.”

He laughs and sits next to her on the couch. He turns his body slightly to face her. “It’s alright. You’re away from your boyfriend.”

“Ex boyfriend,” she corrects him, the words feeling like a stab in her chest. It felt more real when she said it out loud. 

He nods. “Yeah… well… I get it.” 

She nods. Bristel. There’s a long silence. “What was she like?” She doesn’t even have to say her name for him to know who she was talking about. 

“She was… amazing,” he says quietly. “Fearless. Beautiful. Confident. When I met her, she was everything I wasn’t. And I think that’s why I was so attracted to her. Loving her made her more sure of myself. She made me realize I could do things I never dreamed of doing.” He looks down. “It’s been years, but I still miss her. Some days I barely notice. Other days it hits me like a truck. Mainly Christmas Eve. That’s always rough… Good thing I’m Jewish.” He laughs and Annie can tell he’s trying to joke to lighten the mood. 

She puts a hand over his. “I’m really sorry. I can’t even imagine what it must be like.”

He nods. “It’s gotten easier definitely. I’ll live,” he says, smiling.

“You’re a really great roommate,” she says after a pause.

“Even though I make you break your mug and cry at three in the morning?” he jokes.

“Even though you make me break me mug and cry at three in the morning,” she confirms.

“You’re a really good roommate too.”

“Even though I cry a lot?”

“You don’t cry that-“ She gives him a look. “Even though you cry a lot.”

***

Finnick sits in a small coffee shop in his neighborhood waiting for the person he was supposed to meet up with. Last night he had gotten a text from one of his best friends from high school saying he found out he was in town and wanted to meet to catch up. At first Finnick was going to say no or even ignore it, but then he decided to do it. Meeting up with old high school friends hadn’t proven the best for him with Glimmer, but Mitch was sure to be a different story. 

Mitch Abernathy was one of the only people from high school Finnick actually liked. He drank way more than Finnick ever did and just barely passed high school, but Finnick could always count on him to bail him out of a bad situation.

He sees the familiar face walk into the coffee shop and saunter over to him. “The rumors are true,” he declares, grinning. 

Finnick stands up and grabs his hand and then pulls him in for a quick hug. “Hey, Mitch.”

Mitch sits down and runs a hand through his long blonde hair. “What in the world made you come back here? If I can remember correctly, you told me the day of graduation that the only way you would come back here is in a casket.”

Finnick laughs. “Did I actually say that? I guess I haven’t changed much. I’m going back. I thought I could stay here, but I can’t.”

“How’s Glimmer taking it?”

“Glimmer? What would it matter to her?”

“Well, with you guys dating and all…”

Finnick looks at him. “Mitch, are you high? Glimmer and I are not dating, what would give you that idea?” Mitch pulls his phone out of his pocket without saying anything. “Hey, Mitch? Earth to Mitch… You gonna answer me?” He slides his phone across the table and Finnick sees it’s opened to a Facebook status that reads “Rebecca Glimmer is in a relationship with Finnick Odair.”


	9. Promise Me You'll Do That

“You’re fucking kidding me, right?” Finnick asks, grabbing the phone. 

“Guess this is news to you,” Mitch mumbles.

“You think?” Finnick deadpans, glaring at the boy sitting across from him. 

“Why would she do this? Isn’t she on meds?”

Glimmer was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder when they were in middle school. It affects all people differently, but for Glimmer it usually made her obsess over her relationships and feel like she was closer with someone than she actually was. In tenth grade when she went on a date with Eddy Meyer she created a shrine to him in his locker and went to all of his lacrosse practices. He ended up telling the guidance counsellors, so he basically had an order of protection against her whenever he was in school. If she went near him and he felt threatened, he could get her in trouble.

Finnick thought it was weird, but mostly harmless at that point. Glimmer was constantly being called crazy because of her diagnosis and Finnick thought they were all rude and judgmental. But then in high school, when they became regular fuck buddies, Finnick realized that they were slightly right. She would act like she had no attraction; like she didn’t care, but she’d be planning your wedding behind your back. She would threaten girls who got near you and tell them that you were hers even though you weren’t. He didn’t realize how bad it was until prom when she threatened to kill herself if he didn’t go to prom with her. He was stupid for kissing her that night on the beach. Maybe he thought she would have grown out of it. He was such a fool.

Finnick fills Mitch on what happened at the beach as well as a brief summary of he and Annie. When he’s finished, Mitch just nods. Then he gets up and punches him in the arm. “What was that for?” Finnick whines.

“You’re an idiot,” Mitch explains sitting back down. “Get Annie back. At least talk to her. Especially if she’s seen this,” he nods towards his phone which has now gone blank. “You’re going to need to do damage control.”

“Shit!” Finnick says as if he’s realizing for the first time that Annie may have seen the status. And he really is realizing that for the first time. Annie may have seen it. She may hate him even more than she already does. He may lose her. _I_ can’t _lose her._ He stands up quickly, almost knocking over his chair in the process. An older couple who are sitting and talking quietly in the corner of the shop look over and glare at him. The barista just gives him a bored look as if she’s seen worse. Finnick knows what it’s like to work at a coffee shop. She probably _has_ seen worse. 

Once when Finnick was working the closing shift at his coffee shop he saw a couple break up. He’s seen plenty of couples break up before, but this was different. The girl wailed and cried her eyes out, and then went into the bathroom. The boy left to go sit in his car. Finnick could see it from the window. Then, a few minutes later, the girl came barreling out of the bathroom just as Finnick was going to send in a female coworker to check on her. She grabbed one of the chairs and before Finnick could stop her she was outside whacking the front of the car with her chair. They had to call the police and he thinks she was arrested. 

“I gotta go,” he says to Mitch.

“Just realized Annie probably saw the status?”

“Yup.”

“Good luck, Man.”

Finnick stops for a second and turns back to Mitch. “It was good seeing you.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he laughs. “Don’t go all soft on me. Hit me up so we can smoke together before you leave. 

Finnick nods. His roommate, Elizabeth or Effie as she’s more commonly called, was one of their friends in high school. Effie and Mitch got an apartment together after high school and have been living together ever since. Finnick hasn’t talked to Mitch much in the past few years, but he still hasn’t gotten him to admit that he and Effie are dating. He swears they’re both just friends. Effie doesn’t like when Mitch smokes, so they usually find other places to do it. “Will do,” Finnick agrees before walking out the door. 

He calls Annie as soon as he gets into the car but there’s no answer. He hopes she hasn’t already seen it, but he decides to give her some time. He opts to text her. _Hey, call me when you can._ He then adds, _miss you_ , but then decides to delete it before sending the other part of the text. He types out, _Promise me you’ll do that._ He figures maybe that will get her attention. He feels desperate, but he presses send anyway.

***

“Yo, have you been on Facebook?”

“Good to talk to you too, Madge,” she says, pressing mute on the television. She couldn’t sleep—more nightmares—so she woke up early and made herself a big breakfast and had been sitting on the couch watch tv for a few hours. Thom was still asleep. She hadn’t really seen him since the night when she dropped the mug. He was always over at Naomi’s hanging out with his friends. 

“No, seriously.”

“I haven’t,” she says, taking her laptop from where it rests on the end of the couch. Madge must be serious if she’s calling her at ten in the morning and not even asking her how she’s doing. “What’s up?”

“I hate to be the one to break this to you…” she trails off. Then there’s just silence.

“Annie types in her password and pulls up Facebook. “Alright, what do you want me to look at?” she asks, feeling a tight feeling in her chest. She takes a deep breath. What’s the worst that could happen? Someone could have died. _Finnick_ could have died. But why would Madge be telling her to go on Facebook if that was the case?

“Go on Finnick’s page.”

“Jesus Christ, Margaret!” Annie yells, knowing just how much Madge hates her first name. “Just _tell me.”_

_“_ Finnickisinarelationship,” she says so quickly that Annie must have heard her wrong. _She must have._

“Madge, you’re speaking so quickly it almost sounded like you said that Finnick was in a relationship.”

Annie gets to Finnick’s page and sure enough she sees a relationship update with a Rebecca Glimmer. Finnick mentioned his high school friends before. He’s told her about Mitch and Effie and a few others, but never this Rebecca. Maybe she’s not from high school… 

“Annie.” Annie closes her eyes to keep the world from spinning. He broke up with her. He has the right to date other people. But didn’t he still love her? Did he not feel _anything?_ Ever since he broke up with her she’s only felt like half of herself. Like she was missing everything that mattered. But what kept her going was the promise that they would probably get back together. That he still loved her. But now… But now he was dating someone else. He was holding someone else. Kissing someone else. He was moving on. He was creating a life _without her. “Annie.”_

Annie can’t breathe. She can barely even hear. She must drop the phone because she can no longer hear Madge. Once, when she was little and she was playing chicken with her cousins in their pool, she got pinned underneath her cousin in the shallow end. She was pretty sure that was the closest she had ever gotten to dying. Her vision clouded up and she couldn’t hear anything clearly and she couldn’t breathe no matter how desperately she tried. Nothing felt real. Everything felt removed from her. This is how she feels now. Like she’s not in the same world that’s around her. Like everything is too far away and she won’t ever be able to get enough air to her lungs to breathe properly again. 

Annie puts her hands over her ears and tries to block everything out. She’s in the pool. She can’t get up. She can’t breathe. She’s in the closet. Her father’s dead. It might be her fault. The boy down the street tried to put his hand up her skirt on the bus. She failed her test. She’s not going to get into college. Her boyfriend broke up with her. He moved on. He was her soulmate and he’s gone. What do you do when your soulmate doesn’t consider you theirs? What do you do? What do you do?

She’s pulled up. Pulled out of the water. She opens her eyes and she’s not in her cousin’s pool or on the bus or in the closet. She’s on her couch and Thom’s standing in front of her. “Annie.” His voice is more clear now. Her phone is in his hand and he’s talking to Madge. “Yeah. She’s okay… Well, better than she was. Yeah, I’ll update you later. Bye.” He sits down next to her on the couch and takes both her hands. She’s never seen him look this worried before. His eyes meet hers and she can’t remember the last time she’s really looked into a boy’s eyes. And not because she wanted to see what color they were, but because she wanted to get lost in them. Eyes were always her weakness. Like the color swallowed her whole and left her submerged; but it wasn’t drowning. At least it wasn’t a bad type of drowning.

She’s still looking into his eyes a few seconds later but neither of them look away. Neither of them even move. And she’s thinking about how close they would be to Finnick’s eyes if they weren’t so brown and how she’s never had a guy hold her like this or care this much about her since Finnick.

She can’t remember when she starts kissing him. At least, she’s pretty sure _she_ was the one who started it. She’s leaning in, closing the space between them and kissing him. And she doesn’t feel bad about it at first, because at least she’s feeling something. At first she doesn’t think about it at all, but then as soon as she realizes that he’s kissing her too, the guilt sets in. It shouldn’t set in, because Finnick moved on too. He’s in a relationship and he shouldn’t be the only one allowed to move on. But then she feels guilty for not even talking to him. For not even trying to figure out why he broke up with her in the first place. He’s in California with his abusive foster mom and a birth mom who thinks he’s a mistake and he’s probably just trying to feel wanted. Just like she is now. That’s what makes her stop. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

“I know,” he says. “M-me either.” He looks down. “I should have stopped you.”

“Why didn’t you?” she whispers.

“I don’t know.”

She feels like she’s being watched, and at first she thinks she’s being completely paranoid but then she looks up and sees Nat standing in front of them. He has a duffle bag at his feet and he’s wearing a baggy tank top and sweatpants that look way too big for him. They must be Thom’s because he has the waistband rolled and they still look too long. He opens his mouth as if he’s going to say something, but then starts for the door. Annie looks over at Thom, not sure what to do, and Thom gets up. “Nathaniel,” he pleads.

“No,” Nat says, looking at the both of them. He’s crying. That must have been why he was trying to leave.

“Don’t try to explain. Don’t try to apologize. Don’t even talk to me. I thought you _liked_ me, Thomas. Or was that all a lie? That date we went on last night… the nights I slept over and we barely even slept because all we did was talk… Was that to get over her? Was that to distract you from liking Annie?” He says the last sentence as if it’s poison. He looks at Annie. “And _you._ ”

“Thom,” Annie starts.

“No, you don’t get to fucking explain yourself. You take everything away from me. You take away everyone I love. You took Finnick, and now you’re taking Thom.”

“It’s not like you’re in love with them.”

“Who are you to decide?” he screams. “Maybe I could have fallen for Thom!” He looks down. “And as for Finnick…” He looks down. “I was finally getting over him.” He glares at both of them, tears clouding his eyes, then he just turns and walks out the door.

Annie can’t forget the look on his face. 

She looks over at Thom and then gets up. “Where are you going?” he asks after a second.

“I need to get out of here. I’ll stay over at a friend’s,” she says, making up the plan as she goes. “I just need to breathe. Don’t feel bad…”

He nods. “I get it. I’m sorry.”

“I think Nat is the one you really need to be apologizing too.”

***

There’s a knock at the door and Johanna groans. She and Jena are snuggled on the couch together watching Family Feud. Jena has always loved game shows. Probably a little too much. She’s applied to be on about five of them, but she’s never gotten any luck. “I don’t wanna move… Had too much Chinese food.”

“I got it last time,” Jena mumbles, kissing Johanna’s fingers. She knows that drives her wild.

“You think that’s going to make me want to get up?” Johanna asks. Jena just looks at her innocently and Jo glares at her. She gets up anyway as the person at the door knocks again. “Yeah, yeah. Hold on!” she yells. She grabs her shorts that were slung over the arm of the couch and steps into them. She pulls them up quickly and opens the door.

Annie Cresta is standing there with tears running down her face, looking like a little lost puppy. “Who is it?” Jena calls.

“What happened now?” Johanna asks. It comes out crueler than intended and Annie looks like she’s going to burst into tears on the spot. Jo takes her hand and leads her into the apartment, shutting the door behind them. Jena gets up when she sees Annie and hugs her immediately. Jena’s always been better at comforting people. Johanna usually says the wrong thing.

“Did you know?” Annie says to Johanna.

“Is that the beginning of a fun fact?” Johanna asks drily.

“Johanna!” Jena scolds, looking at her. Jo sighs. She knows she can’t get away with being sarcastic at a time like this.

“I don’t think I did,” she says to Annie. “Depending on what you’re talking about.”

Annie pulls out her phone and taps it a few times. Then she hands it to Johanna. Jena looks over her shoulder. It’s a relationship status. Finnick’s relationship status.

“No idea,” Johanna says. Her voice is soft. Annie can tell she really didn’t know and that she feels really bad. Jena puts a hand on Annie’s shoulder. “But,” Johanna says. “I can tell you that this probably isn’t real.”

Annie looks up. “How would you even know that?”

“I’m one of Odair’s best friends remember? He may not open up much, but I know all about Glimmer. She’s crazy…” She trails off. “Okay, not _crazy,_ but Finnick told me she was always making things up in high school. Making up boyfriends… threatening boys who didn’t date her… Finnick took her to prom because she threatened suicide if he didn’t. She probably saw him and built up this whole fantasy that she’s dating him.”

“Are you sure?” 

Johanna nods. “Almost positive.” Annie relaxes a little bit. “But, you should really call Finnick.” Annie nods. She notices she has a few unread messages and sees that Finnick tried to call her. She calls him back, but there’s no answer. She decides to wait. He’ll get in touch with her eventually. 

“Can I stay here tonight?”

Johanna raises an eyebrow. Jena touches her hand and gives her a look. “Of course you can,” Jena says to Annie.

“Why would you want to?” Johanna blurts out.

“I kissed Thom,” Annie whispers.

“Holy fuck,” Johanna says.

“Which one’s Thom?” Jena asks, resting her head on Jo’s shoulder. 

“Annie’s new roommate. You met him once. He’s the one that you said reminded you of Chris Hemsworth with brown hair.” 

Jena nods. “Oh, yeah. He’s hot.”

“Hello,” Jo says. “Right here.”

“Not as hot as you,” she says, kissing her. 

“I hate to interrupt…” Annie says.

Jena laughs and Johanna just smirks. Johanna looks at Annie. “I kind of figured that would happen.”

“And now Nat hates me even more than he already did.”

“If it makes you feel any better, Nat probably only likes like two people on this earth.” She pauses. “But where does he fit into this?”

“He and Thom were getting pretty close. Went on a date apparently. And then he caught me kissing Thom and he totally blew up.”

“Wow, Hendrix and Walker? I would have never expected that.”

“Really? Why?”

“Well, I figured it would take Hendrix about seven different lives to get over Finnick Odair.”

“Wait, so he actually likes Finnick?”

Jena and Johanna both laugh. “Have you ever been in a room with Nathaniel Hendrix? He thinks Odair hangs the fucking moon.”

“I guess it makes sense…”

“What? Why he hates your guts? Don’t worry. He hates me too. You get used to it.”

“Why does he hate you?”

“We actually used to be really close. We hung out with all the same people even though he was older than me. Then one day he tells me he’s in love with Odair. And yeah, I knew. You have to be stupid not to notice, especially if you spent as much time with the two of them as I did. Then he tells me he was going to tell him. And I told him that was a stupid idea. That Finnick didn’t like him that way and he was just going to get hurt…” She pauses for a second and laces her hand with Jena’s. “And he went off on me. Told me I didn’t know that. Told me I was probably just jealous. So I told him something I still regret… Something I still haven’t apologized for.” She swallows and looks down. “I told him that just because Finnick will fuck anything with a vagina, doesn’t mean he would like him.” Annie just looks at her and Johanna can’t even meet her eyes. “Nat will probably forgive you,” she whispers. “I don’t think he’ll ever forgive me.”

“Why don’t you apologize to him?”

“I don’t even want to think about it. This is the first time I’ve talked about it in years.”

“It wouldn’t hurt to try.” She laughs. “Who knows? Maybe he’ll forgive both of us.”


	10. I'd Promise You the World if I Could

“Annie.” When she hears his voice she practically cries for multiple reasons. The first being that she’s just so glad to hear his voice. They haven’t spoken since before he broke up with her and his voice made her feel safer than she had felt in weeks. But then she also realized how sad he sounded. She could hear the relief now that he was talking to her, but he sounded pained and sad. She hasn’t been there for him. She’s been a bad girlfriend. She’s been a bad friend. 

“I’ve missed you,” she cries, not able to hold it in. She’s still in Jena and Jo’s apartment. They let her borrow the bedroom so she could have some privacy. The walls are an off white and there’s a king bed in the middle of the room. They have a closet with sliding doors that are also mirrors and a dresser across from the bed that has a few photos of their families and them together. Their bed has light purple bedding on it, which was probably Jena’s choice.

“Me too, Ann.” He sounds tired. Has he been getting enough sleep? Has he been eating? Has he been drinking and smoking again?

“I’m worried about you.”

He laughs, but it seems forced. “You probably should be. I feel like I’m back where I was five years ago.”

“I’m so so sorry,” she apologizes. “So sorry,” she cries harder.

“This isn’t your fault, Annie.” He should tell her it’s okay. He should tell her he’s going to see her in two days. He should tell her he’s coming home. But he says nothing. “I’m not dating Glimmer.”

“Jo told me.”

“I should be the one who’s apologizing. Not you. I broke up with you… I’m the burden.” 

She can hear his voice crack. All she wants to do right now is hold him; to run her hands through his curls and tell him everything is going to be okay. To kiss his forehead and his neck and his chest and shoulders and just lay in his arms. She hasn’t felt herself without him. It’s amazing how sometimes you don’t know the full extent of your love for someone until they’re gone. “Finnick Odair you are not a burden,” she says slowly so he can take in every word. “You are my whole world.”

***

Annie knows her mother would kill her if she told her she was going to California. She knows Madge would kill her too seeing that Annie should really be heading to New York right now. She can get to California, see Finnick, maybe convince him to go to New York with her, or maybe even back to Massachusetts. He told her all about his birth mom and his foster mom. He told her all about Glimmer. He’s not well when he’s in California and she needs him to come home. She needs him and he needs her. It’s that simple.

“Annika Cresta.” Her mother’s call comes when she’s sitting at the gate waiting for her flight to board. “What did I say about going to California?”

“Mom,” Annie groans. “Did you track my phone again? I’m twenty-two years old.”

“You’re not acting like it.” She pauses. “And I get emails when you use my airlines account remember?”

Annie groans again. “What? Because I’m using my own money to go see my boyfriend because I’m worried about him? I’ll be there for a few days tops. Then I’m probably going to take him to Madge’s party so he can see everyone.”

Laura sighs. “I guess I can’t argue with you…” She trails off. “Just know that you’re my whole world, Annie. I don’t know what I would do if anything ever happened to you.”

Annie nods. “I know, Mom. I’ll be careful. I love you.”

“I love you too. Give Finnick a hug from me.”

***

Finnick takes a deep breath as he sinks into one of the uncomfortable airport chairs. He puts his music in and grabs a granola bar out of his backpack. He can’t wait to see Annie and he even can’t wait to see the rest of her friends. They’ve felt more like family to him than anyone else lately.

Finnick takes a moment to text Madge. _About to get on the plane._

He’s met by an incoming call. “Jo says Annie left.”

“What you mean she left?” he asks, his heart dropping in his chest. She had sounded so distraught when they last talked. 

“She’s not in her apartment. We don’t know where she is. She’s not answering her phone.”

“Do something!” Finnick yells, effectively drawing the attention of a few of his fellow travelers.

“Cool it, Odair. I’m doing the best I can. It’s not like you’ve been the most attentive to her whereabouts lately.”

He starts to argue, but then realizes she’s right. If he hadn’t left for California and if he hadn’t freaked out and broken up with her, they would still be talking. He would know where she was. She probably wouldn’t have had any reason to leave in the first place. “Sorry,” he mumbles.

“I’m gonna call her mom. Just focus on getting on the plane and not throwing yourself off of it, okay?”

He sighs. “Yeah.”

He unlocks his phone and goes to an album in his photos titled _Annie Pie._ He scrolls up to the first picture. It’s from the second day they met. She’s sitting on the kitchen counter with a cup of tea. He had looked at her and said, “Hey, Annie? Guess what you are?” She looked at him confusedly and he answered, “A tea-se!” She had laughed so hard that she almost spit the tea out. He snapped the photo because he couldn’t believe how cute she looked. Her cheeks were flushed and she was wearing denim shorts and knee socks and a light blue tank top. Her hair was piled in a bun on the top of her head and her nose scrunched up. She looked so happy.

He scrolls to the last photo. It was a snapchat she had sent him a few weeks ago that she saved. She has sunglasses perched on the top of her head and her hair is wavy and pooling around her shoulders. Her face is dotted with dozens of freckles because of the sun. She’s holding up a Starbucks cup that reads, _Manny._ The caption says, “Starbucks strikes again.”

Finnick texts Annie, _I’d promise you the world if I could._

***

“It’s not straight!” Mrs. Undersee says to Sebastian. 

“Neither am I,” Sebastian shoots back and she can see her mom's expression change completely. 

Madge is arranging some flowers in the middle of the table when her mom comes over to her. “Is that farm boy of yours coming to this?”

“Yes, _Gale_ is coming to this.” Madge loves her mom, but like a lot of her family, both the Undersees and the Donners, they only care about appearances. “He’s not a farm boy, Mother. He’s from Long Island.”

“He was born in Ithaca. He was practically raised in a barn.”

“Can’t you just stop for one day?” Madge asks, raising her voice. “This is my birthday party.”

“Mine too!” Sebastian cuts in.

Madge sighs. “I’m sick of you and mom and well, everyone, judging my every move.” Madge is shaking. She’s never stood up to her family before. That’s usually Seb’s job. Even though Seb annoyed her constantly, that was one of the things she always admired about him. He always stood up for what he believed in. At their sixteenth birthday they had a bigger party than they’ve ever had and some of their family members were being pretty homophobic. Madge had no idea that Seb was bi. He never told her. He never told her anything. But he marched up to the front of the room and got a microphone and announced to his entire family that he’s bisexual. He caused a shit show and their mother grounded him. She didn’t recognize he was bisexual until months later, and she still has problems with it to this day. She thinks it’s just a phase; that he just hasn’t made up his mind or found the right girl. It’s always “the right girl,” never the right guy.

Mrs. Undersee takes a deep breath. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I just want what’s best for you two.”

“Gale is what’s best for me,” Madge insists.

Sebastian looks at Madge and then looks at Mrs. Undersee “I’m bringing my boyfriend to the party. So drink as many Cosmopolitans you need to be nice to him and to be happy for us.” He pauses. “But that doesn’t mean I’m gay. I’m attracted to women. And no matter who I end up marrying, whether it’s a man or a woman, I want you to be happy for me.”

“I love you guys. You know that,” she says, standing between them and putting her arms around them. “You’re both my whole world and I’ll always support you.”

***

Annie gets off her plane in Minnesota where she has a layover. She realizes that she didn’t tell Finnick she was coming and really has no way of getting to his house. She’s about to find his foster mom’s number in her contacts from when she gave it to her at Finnick’s graduation, when all of her missed calls and text messages come in. She always expects a few text messages, but never this many, and especially not this many phone calls. She has the most from Madge, so she calls her back first. “Hey.”

“What the fuck, Annika?!”

Annie groans. “What did I do to warrant the first name?”

“What did you do? What did you _do?_ You went missing! For Christ’s sake, Annie!”

“Missing? Madge, I was on a plane. My mom knew.”

“A plane? Why are you taking a plane to New York?”

“I’m not… I’m going to California.”

“ _California!?”_ Annie pulls the phone away from her ear. She loves Madge, but sometimes she can be more smothering than her own mother.

“I’m going to see Finnick.”

“Finnick’s coming to New York, you dumb ass!”

Annie’s stomach drops. “New York? Why New York?”

“I invited him to my birthday party! I wanted to surprise you. I didn’t think you’d take a trip to California two days before my birthday and not tell anyone. Are you out of your mind!?” 

“A little,” Annie admits. She turns and looks at the departures board. “My flight’s delayed,” she groans. “What am I going to do?” She feels the panic set in. She’s never been this far from home alone, and now she might have to stay here for another two hours. 

“Annie, listen to me. It’ll be okay. Get some food and try to switch your flight and get to New York. Now that you’ve ruined my damn surprise.”

“Margaret Undersee, I don’t deserve you.”

“You really don’t,” she laughs. “You better have gotten me a damn good birthday present.”

***

“I’m sorry, M’am,” the flight attendant says to her. “I don’t think we’ll be able to switch you to the next flight to New York. You can stay on your existing flight and then try to get a flight from there, or you can stay in a hotel tonight and get a flight tomorrow.”

“But you don’t understand,” Annie says, getting frustrated.

The woman looks at her as if to say, “Try me.”

“Well, you see, my boyfriend moved away at the beginning of the summer and then he met his birth mother who told him he was a mistake and then he broke up with me because he was afraid he wasn’t good enough for me and let me tell you, he is, and then I found out he was in a relationship with a girl from high school but it turns out he wasn’t, she just put it on Facebook that they were, and then I kissed my roommate who turned out to be interested in my boyfriend’s best friend and my boyfriend’s best friend hates me because he used to be in love with my boyfriend but he was just starting to fall for my roommate and I finally talked to my boyfriend and he sounds _horrible_ so I booked the next flight out to California to see him only to find out he’s on his way to New York to see me…” Annie takes a deep breath. “So I _really_ need to get on that flight.”

The flight attendant looks at her with a shocked expression, and the other flight attendant prints out a ticket and hands it to Annie. “Good luck.”

***

Annie goes to a restaurant to eat, keeping her eye on her phone and the departures board every few minutes. She was able to get herself on a flight to New York even though she had to pay a fee to switch it. Her mom would probably kill her, but she figures it’s a small price to pay. She sighs and rests her forehead on the table. She’s tired and she just wants to see Finnick. She looks up and sees a tall boy leaning against a pillar across from the restaurant. He’s wearing a blue beanie and he has curls poking out of the front of the beanie.

She looks down at her phone and sees she has a text from Finnick that she must have missed. _I’d promise you the world if I could._ She reads it and she smiles so much her face hurts, but then she almost feels like crying. She misses him so much it hurts. She stares at the screen trying to think of a fitting response. He’s probably on a plane to New York right now. He won’t see it until he lands. _You are my world,_ she replies.

She goes back to looking at the boy. He has his phone out and he’s just staring at it. She realizes the reason he’s so close to the pillar is because he’s charging his phone and he’s slightly hunched over so that the cord won’t rip out of his phone if he moves it too much. He’s smiling at his phone and she thinks he’s probably texting a significant other or maybe a family member. She wonders if that’s who he’s visiting. If he’s going to see his girlfriend in New York or his boyfriend in Florida or his parents in Massachusetts. She wonders how much he misses them.

That’s the thing about airports. There’s always so much emotion in them. The sadness of the loved ones who have to depart. The joy of those who have been reunited. She and Finnick still haven’t gotten their airport reunion. She imagines running towards and jumping into his arms, kissing his face and his nose and nuzzling her head into his chest. She imagines his smell crashing all into her at once; like soap and salt water and just a hint of something sweet; probably sugar. She imagines never wanting to let go. Probably blocking all of the people in the airport who are trying to get around them and go on their separate ways.

She tears herself out of her fantasy and looks over at the boy one more time. Then he looks up.

_Finnick._


	11. Promise Me We Tell the Truth

Home used to be Florida. Her home was small and only had three bedrooms. One of them was her parents’, one was hers and one was a guest room. She remembers how empty it felt after her father died, but yet it almost felt fuller without the stress of him looming within their walls. The cool sea water. The green palm trees and blue skies and warm air. Florida was all she knew.

Then when she visited Emerson, Boston almost immediately felt like home. The cooler air and the busy streets. The throngs of loud kids laughing and walking around in groups as they went to their classes. Her dorm room which was covered in polaroid pictures and posters. The dining hall with a smell that never quite left your clothes. The crowded hallways and tall buildings.

Then her apartment. The small kitchen and the living room that was never quite clean enough. The bathroom with the mismatched blue tub and white sink and the cracked floor tile that always bothered Annie until she put a bath mat over it. The room in the corner that eventually became Thom’s. The room that started out as Finnick’s, then became theirs and then eventually just hers even though he never quite left because she could feel him in the walls and smell him in the blankets and pillows. The cream carpets and meows of Poseidon. The chatter of her friends and Finnick’s laughter.

Without realizing it though, home rooted somewhere else. Home was a pair of strong arms and green eyes. Home was that low laugh that made her stomach turn. Home was soft kisses against her bare skin and hungry kisses against her lips that made her skin crawl. Home was her skin against his and her hand in his and their legs touching as they fell asleep under the covers. Home was his picture as her lock screen and his curly hair and bright white smile. Home was his text messages and his whispered I love you’s and his off key singing as he made pancakes. Home was his tears and the way the water dripped down his bare torso when he got out of the shower. Home was his voice slurred because of the alcohol and his large sweatshirts and the sweatpants slung low on his hips. Home was the smell of soap and the sea and sometimes faint smells of alcohol and sugar. Home was Finnick.

And here, in the airport, back in his arms, she was finally home.

“Annie Pie,” he whispers bending down and pressing a kiss to her cheek. She looks up. There are tears in her eyes and he laughs and kisses her on the forehead. “What a baby,” he jokes, but his eyes are glassy as well. “I missed you so much.”

“Me too,” she breathes out. She buries her head in his chest and holds back a sob. “You have no idea.”

“How are you in the airport?” he asks, taking her hand and leading her over to the table she was sitting at. The host looks vaguely annoyed because Annie thinks he was just about to give the table away. “I was going to surprise you in California and I had a lay over here and it got delayed.”

“That’s insane,” he says. “We almost missed each other.”

She takes his hands and looks into his eyes. She never knew how much she missed that color. “It’s almost like we were meant to be.”

***

“Yes, Mom. I’m with Finnick,” Annie says for the second time in their five minute call. 

“How are you getting to Madge’s?”

“Gale and Peeta are picking us up. Katniss will probably be with them.”

“Where are you staying?”

“With Katniss. Finnick is staying with Peeta or Gale.”

“When will you be back in Boston?”

“A few days, Mom.”

“Don’t get snippy with me, Annika Emilia Cresta. You almost flew out to California! You were in Minnesota all by yourself! Who knows what could have happened!”

“Yeah, she could have gotten stabbed by a viking or something,” she hears Devon joke in the background. Her mom must be at Mike’s.

“Devon,” she hears Mike scold his son. At least they seem to be on speaking terms again. 

“Hi, Devon,” Annie says. He replies and so does Cecily. 

Finally, Finnick takes the phone out of Annie’s hand. “Hi, Mom,” he greets without skipping a beat. The steadiness of his voice makes Annie blush. She rubs her thumb across his hand as he speaks. “Annie is in capable hands. Don’t worry.” 

Laura laughs. “That’s what I’m worried about.” It’s Finnick’s turn to blush. She laughs again. “Just messing with you, Kid. Listen, you gotta get down to Florida this summer. Mike and I are getting married in August. I haven’t told Annie yet, shit. Put Annie back on the phone.”

Finnick hands Annie the phone. “Mike and I are getting married at the end of August. Small wedding. Your friends can come. Book your tickets now. You’re paying. Okay, put Finnick back on the phone,” she says practically in one breath. 

Annie gasps. “You’re getting married in _August?_ Isn’t that a little soon?”

“We’ve both already had weddings, Ann. We don’t need anything big. We’re only having a formal thing because of you kids.”

“Okay, Mom,” Annie says knowing full well that her mom definitely wants a wedding. Her mom loves parties. She loves planning and she loves inviting people. The house was always full of people when Annie was younger and Annie hated it. She hated how loud everyone was and how everyone acted like they knew her when she had no clue who they were. She hated how their fat lips pressed kisses to her cheeks and gave her praise she didn’t deserve and hugged her tight until she couldn’t breathe. Then later when she escaped up to her room they would comment about how she was too quiet and needed to socialize like her mother. “Such a quiet one. Laura is a social butterfly. She’s nothing like Laura. She must be like Ned. Ned was always weird like that. She’s got his mannerisms.” It terrified her that she could be even remotely like her father because all she remembered of him was loud yelling and the smell of alcohol.

When she grew older she realized her mother filled the house because it was too empty without her father. She filled the halls with noise to fill up the crushing silence that was there otherwise. She fluttered around the kitchen to keep her thoughts from weighing her down. She invited her friends to stay so she wouldn’t have to go to her empty bedroom; the bedroom where her husband died. She wanted her daughter to be around people so she wouldn’t feel like she made mistakes as she tried to raise her alone. Annie never told her mom that she didn’t make any mistakes. Her mother was stronger when her father died, even if she didn’t feel like it.

Finnick takes the phone from Annie. She must have gone silent for too long. He squeezes her hand and she feels a little more steady than before. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of her. I’ll see you soon. Love you too.” Finnick hangs up the phone and puts his arm around Annie and then stops walking for a second. “You okay? You blanked out for a bit. Do you need water or anything?”

She shakes her head. “My mom is getting married,” she whispers.

“Yeah,” he says. “That’s kind of what happens when you get engaged.”

They start walking again and she rests her head against his shoulder. They get to the visiting area where they’re supposed to meet Gale and Peeta and she just stays silent. She imagines her mother walking down an aisle in a white dress. She imagines standing in a bridesmaid dress next to Mike. She imagines Devon hitting on cute boys at the reception and Cecily’s hair in an elaborate up-do as all the boys stare at her. She imagines dancing with Finnick and talking about what their own wedding is going to be like. Their own wedding. Her own white dress. Her own bridesmaids. Madge would be the maid of honor. Nat would probably be the best man. She’d want to get married in Florida. Madge is going to get married too. Probably at some fancy hall with all of her father’s political friends. Gale’s going to have a smile so big that it won’t even fit his face when he sees her walk down the aisle. Madge’s wedding will be nothing but classy because that’s how Madge is.

When she first met Madge it was during their freshman year at the grill of their school’s cafe after their History of Music class. They both had their four pm class together and they had never said a word to each other. They had just gotten their exams back and Annie hadn’t done as well as she wanted to. Granted, she still got a B, but Annie was always aiming for A’s in her classes, and this was no exception.

_“How did you do?” Annie asks Madge as Madge goes up to the counter and orders a veggie burger. She steps back and smiles at Annie._

_“A. How about you?”_

_Annie shrugs, “Didn’t do as well as I wanted.” She could have told Madge she got a B; it’s not like it was a bad grade, but she decided not to disclose that information._

_“I can help you study for the next test if you want,” she offers._

_“Yeah,” Annie says, smiling. “That would be cool.”_

_“Chicken fingers!” the woman from behind the grill shouts._

_Annie takes her dinner and looks at Madge. “I’m Annie.”_

_“Madge,” she says. She takes her phone out of her pocket and hands it to her. “Put in your number so we can figure out when to meet up. Annie takes her phone out as well and hands it to Madge. “See you on Tuesday,” Madge says when they switch phones back._

_“Yeah,” Annie says. “Definitely.”_

They had no idea that they were going to be best friends years down the line. Finnick squeezes her hand again and she’s pulled back to reality. “Hey,” he whispers. “Look, Gale and Peeta are over there. Are you okay?”

She nods. “Just overthinking a lot of things…” She trails off. “I really missed everyone.”

He kisses her on the cheek. “I really missed you too. And I didn’t fully know until you were back in my arms, and I don’t ever want to let you go again.”

***

“Look who made it,” Madge says flatly looking at Finnick and Annie who have been practically attached at the side since the airport. She smiles and hugs Annie so Annie knows she's joking. “I can’t believe you were going to California instead of coming to my party. Are you actually insane?”

“A little,” Annie admits staring up at Finnick.

“Oh, gross,” Madge says. 

Annie laughs. “I was going to make it back in time. It was your little surprise stunt that really messed things up.”

“Well excuse me for trying to be a good friend,” Madge says sarcastically. “You both were bumming me out. It was a gift to myself so that you guys would stop being so depressing.”

“Wow, you’re the best friend ever,” Finnick deadpans, but he’s smiling. Madge walks over and hugs both of them. She’s wearing a special dress for the occasion: a short white dress with silver sequins on the top and a puffy layered bottom. It almost looked like a mini wedding dress. She’s wearing tall white platforms. Madge is already quite tall for a girl — almost all legs — but in these heels she towers over Annie and is almost as tall as Gale who is 6’ 3”. Her long blonde hair is curled at the bottom and she’s wearing a light pink flower crown in her hair. 

“You look amazing,” Annie says, almost tearing up. “You almost look like you’re about to get married.” 

She blushes and fixes the flower crown which was about to fall off her head. “Gale made it. He collected the flowers for me from the meadow by his house. It was part of my birthday present.” Annie looks at the flower crown which contains pink lilies. “I always said they were my favorite.”

Annie was wearing a light green dress that went down to her ankles and came up above her knees in the front. As always, she was wearing her converse as well. Finnick was wearing a light blue dress shirt and gray dress pants and shoes. He had a jacket as well, but he opted to leave it at Gale’s because it was way too hot and Gale and Peeta weren’t wearing jackets either. He put a lot of hair gel in it in the morning to try and tame the curls, but it was pretty unsuccessful and Annie claimed she liked his hair curly better anyway. He ended up messing it up on the car ride to Madge’s house.

“Margaret! We have to get to the hall!” Mrs. Undersee calls. 

“Yeah, Margaret,” Finnick mimics, laughing uncontrollably.

“Let’s go, Margaret,” Annie says, laughing as well. 

“Oh, shut it, Annika,” Madge shoots back, smirking.

“Wait, your name is Annika?” Finnick asks.

Madge stops and stares at the two of them. “You didn’t know that?”

“Nope. _Annika_ never mentioned it.”

Annie groans. “It’s embarrassing.” 

“You know my middle name is Samuel,” he points out.

“It never came up,” she says. “You never asked.”

“How much more do I not know about you? Do you have a whole secret life I don’t know about?”

“Margaret!” Mrs. Undersee yells again.

“C’mon, Guys. I hate to interrupt your lover’s spat, but we really need to go.”

“Promise me we tell the truth. Yeah?”

Annie nods and Finnick kisses her cheek. Annie can’t keep her brain from screaming. _There’s a lot you don’t know. You don’t know I kissed Thom._

***

“So which one’s your boyfriend?” Madge’s Aunt May, her mother’s sister, asks her at the party. Madge was making rounds to greet all the guests and ended up getting stuck at the table with her aunts and uncles as they all bombarded her with questions and critiqued her.

“My fiancé, Aunt May,” Madge corrects for the third time.

“You’re too young to be engaged,” she says offhandedly. “What do you know about love?”

“Probably a lot more than you,” Madge shoots back. She’s trying to be polite, but she’s not in the mood for all the criticism. 

Aunt May just ignores her and points to Finnick. “Is that him? He’s handsome.”

Madge shakes her head and points to Gale who’s sitting in the corner talking to Katniss. Gale has been doing as much as he can to get in good graces with her family, but her aunts and uncles were always the most critical and she didn’t exactly want to expose him to that yet. “Him,” she says.

“I see why he proposed,” her dad’s sister, Linda, says. “He’s so scruffy and frazzled-looking. He probably realized how lucky he was to get with a girl so out of his league that he had to put a ring on it as quick as he could.”

“We’ve been dating for almost four years,” Madge points out.

Aunt Linda shrugs. “Bring him over here.” Madge takes a deep breath and decides it’s best not to argue. She’s already treading on thin ice by talking back so much. She crosses the room and stands in front of Gale. 

“They want to meet you,” she says.

He gets up and takes her hand. “Calm down, Babe. It’ll be okay.”

“You don’t know what they’re like, Gale.”

“Don’t worry. They’re going to be my family too. I have to get along with them sooner or later.”

Gale leads Madge over to the table. “I’m Gale,” he introduces himself.

“Is that short for something?” her uncle, Arthur, asks him.

Gale shakes his head. “No, Sir. It’s just Gale.”

“Let me see the ring,” Aunt May says suddenly. Madge sticks out her hand. 

“It’s small. You didn’t use Grandma’s ring?”

“This was my grandmother’s ring,” Gale explains. “My mother wanted me to have it.”

“Her grandmother’s ring was much bigger than this.”

“Are you having fun at the party, Gale?” Uncle Arthur asks. Madge relaxes, thinking they finally moved on to the awkward small talk portion of the evening. “I’m sure you haven’t been at a party like this before. You don’t feel out of place, do you?”

Madge is about to go off, but Gale just squeezes her hand. “No, Sir,” he replies evenly. “This is certainly the most special party I’ve ever been to. I get to be in a room filled with the family of the woman I love most in the world — after my mother of course.” Madge sees her family look down and fidget uncomfortably. “The next time we do this will be our wedding. So I’m definitely excited to meet all the people who will be attending the most special day of our lives.” He looks at them. “It was nice meeting you all, but we must meet with some of the other family members.” 

He leads Madge out of the room and she just looks at him. “Is it bad that you just turned me on so much right now?” Madge asks leaning up to kiss him.

He shakes his head as she moves to kiss his neck. He leans back. “We can’t do this here. Your family can come out at any moment. I don’t think I’ll be able to talk my way out of that.”

“There’s a unisex bathroom on the other side of the hall.”

“Let’s go,” he says, smirking at her and kissing her quick. “God, I love you.”

“I bet you I love you more.”

***

“Do you think they will notice if I steal a balloon?” Peeta asks. “I want to breathe in the helium and sing Bohemian Rhapsody.”

“You’re five,” Katniss says, but Annie can see how adoringly she’s looking at him. She’s never seen Katniss look at anyone else like that.

“It sucks that Jo and Jena couldn’t come,” Madge says, grabbing a bottle of vodka from behind the open bar and shoving it into one of her gift bags. “They’re too busy fucking in Vegas.”

“Madge!” Annie scolds. “You shouldn’t take that!” 

“Do you know how much my parents paid for this? I’m taking it. Plus, I need to get shit faced after dealing with all those family members.”

“You disappeared for a while,” Katniss points out. “We started to worry that you escaped out a bathroom window or something.”

“But then we saw Gale was gone too so we figured you went to bang in a bathroom.”

Gale glares at him and Madge blushes bright red. “Okay, Sherlock and Watson,” she says as the rest of them all roar with laughter.

“Now what?” Annie asks. The only people left in the hall are Madge’s parents. 

“Well, Gale should meet my dad,” Madge says. “He came late. Again.” 

“Okay, and then I have a surprise for you,” Gale says. 

“A quickie in the back of your pick up truck?” Finnick teases.

“Fuck off, Man,” Gale says, but he smiles as he and Madge walk over to her parents. 

“Father,” Madge says to a balding man in a gray suit and green dress shirt and gray tie. He’s talking to Madge’s mom and he turns to them when Madge calls him. “This is Gale, my fiancé.” Gale hasn’t visited Madge’s parents very often and when he has, Mr. Undersee is usually away on business or working late in the office. 

“Nice to meet you, Sir,” Gale says, holding out to shake Mr. Undersee’s hand.

“He’s not that bad, Eileen,” Mr. Undersee says as if Gale wasn’t standing right in front of them. “A little lanky, a little scruffy, but not much a good haircut and some food can’t fix. And his manners are alright for a kid who probably wasn’t brought up on much.”

“Father!” Madge gasps. “Gale’s mother provided very well for her children and Gale works very hard to provide for himself and his family. Not everyone can make as much money as you do, but you shouldn’t shame others for it.”

Her parents are quiet for a second and then Mr. Undersee puts a hand on Gale’s shoulder. “It was nice meeting you, Son. I’m glad Margaret has found someone to treat her right.”

“Thank you, Sir,” Gale says. Then he looks at her mom. “And what we discussed is still okay?” Mrs. Undersee nods and Madge looks confused.

“I’m driving us all up to my old lake house upstate where I used to live,” Gale explains. “I figured since we haven’t seen each other in a while that we could all spend a weekend together up there. “It’s another part to your birthday present. Jo and Jena might even show up.”

“You’re the best!” Madge says, kissing him on the cheek.

“You haven’t had anything to drink?” Mrs. Undersee says to Gale.

Gale shakes his head. “Call us when you get there,” Mr. Undersee says, kissing Madge on the cheek.

***

“You knew about this?” Madge asks Annie. They’re in Madge’s room so she can change and pack quickly before they head out. It’s going to take about two hours to get there. Gale is going to drive one car and Katniss is going to drive another and they’ll all take turns in their respective cars. She looks around at Madge’s room. The walls are light purple and her name is in letters over her bed. She has light pink fairy lights above her bed and a white desk in the corner of the room. Everything in the room has a place. It looks like a little girl’s room, not the room of a twenty-two year old who’s engaged.

Annie nods.”It’s super sweet of him.”

Madge nods. “He did really well with my family.”

Annie smiles and sits on Madge’s bed. She looks around at the photos on her dresser. There are photos of her on vacation with her family and a few photos of her and Gale. There’s a photo of the whole gang together when they took a trip to the Esplanade one night. “Are you nervous to get married?” she blurts out.

“A little,” she admits. “Why?”

“I’ve just been thinking about marriage a lot lately.”

“Oh, really?” she asks raising her eyebrows.

“Not like that,” Annie says, hitting her with a flip flop from the bed.

“Rude,” Madge says. “Attacking me with my own footwear!”

Annie laughs as Madge takes the flip flop from her and puts it in her bag. “It’s just my mom is getting married and you’re getting married and Jo and Jena will probably get married soon… And then Katniss and Peeta…” she looks down. “When did we get so old?”

Madge sits down. “Isn’t it exciting though? I’ve planned my wedding since I was like three. I’ve cut out pictures out of my mom’s wedding catalogues, bought those fake rings out of the machines and pretended to be engaged… The biggest question was always my groom,” she says. “And now I have him.” 

She smiles wide and Annie hugs her. “I love you so much.”

There’s a knock on the door and they both spring apart. “I hate to interrupt this love fest,” Sebastian says flatly. 

“What do you want?” Madge asks.

“Are we going?”

“We?” Madge and Annie ask.

“Yeah,” Sebastian says. “Gale invited me and my boyfriend on your little road trip.”

“Great,” Annie says.

“I’m breaking up with him,” Madge says, glaring at her brother.

Sebastian grins. “I guess he wanted some quality time with his brother-in-law.”


	12. I Promise I Won’t Doubt Us

“I spy with my little eye, something black,” Madge says.

“Madge, Honey,” Gale says. “It’s ten pm. Everything is fucking black.”

“Okay, Mr. Grumpy,” she says, taking his free hand and playing with his fingers. “I thought you wanted to take this trip.”

He nods. “I did. I’m just tired. We probably should have left tomorrow morning after we had some sleep.”

She shrugs. “I wonder how Katniss and Peeta are doing in their car,” she says. “Too bad they got stuck with Sebastian and Liam.”

“Are they actually dating? Sebastian and Liam?”

“Honestly, who knows? He’s probably just a fuck buddy and he keeps him around to piss Mom off.”

“Your parents really don’t accept him?”

“They just don’t really understand the whole bisexual thing. They think he’s confused or something. He’s dated more boys than girls so they keep trying to get him to admit he’s just gay. A lot of people say he’s just doing it for attention.” She gets quiet. “My brother annoys the shit out of me, but I hate the shit he gets for being bisexual, especially from the family. Bi erasure and bi stereotypes are so bad. People say they’re not straight enough and they’re not gay enough. People act like people say they’re bisexual just so they can have more sex.”

Gale nods. “Yeah, I don’t know much about bi people, but you have taught me a lot and I think all of that stuff is pretty ridiculous. I don’t see why people can’t just let people live.” He pauses. “Your family’s certainly a tough crowd.”

“You did really well,” she says. 

“My mom wants you to visit again,” he says. “She loves you.”

“Yeah. Maybe after this trip.”

“Well, after this trip you’re going back to Boston.”

“No I’m not. You know I’m staying in New York for the summer.”

“Open the glove compartment.”

She opens the glove compartment and pulls out an envelope. She opens it and it’s a plane ticket to Boston. “Gale,” she whispers. “You can’t do this. You’re spending so much money on me.”

“Shhhh,” he says, taking her hand. “Don’t worry about it. I miss you. I want you to come back with me.”

“Are my parents okay with it?”

“Yeah,” he says. “I want you back with me, Babe. I miss you.”

She smiles. “I miss you too.” She pauses for a second and then turns around. 

She starts laughing. “What?” Gale asks.

“Finnick and Annie are sleeping on top of each other.”

Gale laughs. “So much for Mr. Finnick ‘I’m going to drive’ Odair.”

***

“Next time, you guys are driving with Sebastian,” Katniss says as they get out of the car. “He and Liam made out the entire time.”

“Maybe we’ll put them in separate cars,” Peeta jokes.

“Sorry,” Madge apologizes. “It wasn’t my idea to invite him.” She glares at Gale.

Gale shrugs and looks over at Sebastian and Liam who are making out against a tree.

“Jesus Christ, respect the nature!” Katniss yells. She puts her bag down and looks around. Peeta puts a hand on her shoulder. “Where’s the lake?”

“Oh, we live on the inside, so the lake is across the way. We get more land and we have the barn. Not that we have any animals anymore. My aunt and uncle uses this house more than we do but even they aren’t up here all year anymore.” 

Finnick and Annie finally stir and get out of the car. “What year is it?” Finnick mumbles.

“It’s the year 2059. We’re preparing for an apocalypse,” Madge says with a straight face.

“Funny,” Finnick says. He looks around and then takes Annie’s hand. “Where are we going to sleep?” 

Gale points up the way to a small house. There’s a gravel walkway up to the front of the house. “C’mon let’s at least get our stuff out of the cars and then we can go to sleep.”

“I’m hungry,” Finnick whines.

“We don’t have any food,” Gale says, opening the back of his truck. He takes his duffel bag out of the back and sighs. “It’s late or I’d suggest we’d go somewhere. We’ll get breakfast out tomorrow and then go grocery shopping.”

“But I’m hungry now,” Finnick whines.

“I thought you were tired,” Annie mumbles sleepily. She staggers over to him and puts her head against his chest. 

“I’m more hungry,” he moans. “Are you going to leave me to die out here in the wilderness?”

“There’s a McDonald’s a five minute drive away. Calm down, Drama Queen,” Sebastian says.

“Oh, look who finally removed his lips from Liam’s long enough to craft a witty comeback,” Madge taunts.

“Oh, come off it,” Sebastian says. “I know that you and Gale banged in the bathroom at our party. Really, Margaret? Our twenty second birthday party and you fuck your boyfriend just yards away from our family and friends in a public restroom?”

“Like you haven’t done worse,” she mumbles while turning bright red. She starts getting her things out of the truck and everyone else starts to do the same. “How did you know anyway?”

“Liam and I were going to use the same bathroom but it was already occupied.”

“And how did you know it was us?”

“Oh, it was hardly a mystery.” He pauses. “Oh, Gale,” he mimics in a high pitched voice.

“Oh, shut it, Sebastian,” she says angrily. “I don’t want you here, but the least you could do is behave like a normal human being.”

They walk up the path to the house and Finnick has to practically drag Annie who is complaining about being sleepy. They get into the house which has a living room to their right and a small dining room and kitchen to their left. There are a few steps leading upstairs where Gale informs them are two bedrooms and a den through the doorway in front of them. Gale’s about to tell them where everyone is going to sleep when there’s a loud banging sound.

“We’re going to be murdered!” Peeta yells.

“Yeah, because a murderer would knock on the door before killing us,” Katniss jokes. Peeta blushes and she laughs and looks at him affectionately. 

Gale goes to the door and opens it, revealing a tall girl who’s almost taller than Madge with light brown skin and long black curly hair. She’s wearing bright pink shorts and a blue bikini top. “It is you!” she says smiling widely. “Your mom told Papa that you’d be up. Papa is making food if you want anything. Kind of a late night cookout.” She looks past Gale into the house. Her expression drops almost immediately. “I didn’t know there would be so many of you…” She pauses for a second and then smiles again. “Oh, well! The more the merrier! I’ll go tell Mama and Papa and you can come over when you’re ready!” She speaks quickly as if someone’s going to interrupt her if she doesn’t get her sentence out immediately. “It’s great to see you again!” she yells over her shoulder before jogging off.

Gale just stands there for a few seconds, his mouth wide open. Then, as if he’s suddenly remembering that he’s not alone, he turns to the rest of the group and smiles. He scratches the back of his neck nervously and then looks down.

“Who was that?” Sebastian asks, clearly voicing all of their thoughts.

“That was Mariana Martinez,” Gale explains. “She lives across the road. She was one of my best friends when we were kids, back when I used to come up here more often. I don’t think I’ve seen her since… Middle school, God,” he says. He pauses and zones out. 

Katniss snaps her fingers. “Earth to Hawthorne.”

“Are we getting food then?” Finnick asks. His stomach growls. “I’m _really_ hungry.”

“That’s what you get for sleeping through dinner,” Madge points out.

“You could have woken me up,” Finnick shoots back.

“I think Liam and I are going to go upstairs,” Sebastian interrupts.

“The hell you are,” Madge says.

“Oh, I didn’t know we invited Mom,” Sebastian says rolling his eyes.

“This is Gale’s house, not yours. You’re coming with us,” Madge says glaring at him. “So we have to go near their house to get to the lake?” Madge asks Gale as they walk across the dark dirt road to the Martinez’s house. Their house is a large raised house. It has a deck in the back with a large set of steps to reach it. There’s a series of stone step to get down to the dock where there are a few people gathered around a fire pit and a barbecue. 

“Gale!” a short woman with short black hair yells. She walks up to Gale and hugs him. “You’ve gotten so tall! How’s your mother? And your brothers? And your little sister?”

“Everyone’s good,” he says giving her a kiss on the cheek. He turns and introduces everyone. These are my friends, Peeta, Katniss, Sebastian, Liam, Finnick, Annie, and my girlfriend, Madge.

Mr. Martinez says something to Mariana and she goes up to everyone. “Do you guys want hamburgers or hot dogs?”

“Yes,” Finnick answers. “Please.”

She takes everyone’s orders and then looks over at Madge. “Did you want anything?”

“No thanks. I’m a vegetarian.”

“Oh, well, we have S’mores over there if you want some.”

Madge shakes her head and presses her lips into a thin line. “Marshmallows have gelatin in them. Not vegetarian.”

“Well, aren’t you fun at parties,” Sebastian says as Mariana just looks at her. 

“Well,” she says, obviously at a loss for words. “There’s still chocolate and graham crackers.”

Finnick goes and sits on the dock and looks down at the lake. Mariana walks over to Finnick and sits next to him. “What was your name again?”

“Finnick,” he says.

“And you’re a friend of Gale’s?” Finnick nods. “How old are you?”

“Twenty-four.”

“Oh, I’m twenty,” she says.

They continue talking for a bit and the rest of the gang just watches from afar. “Are you seeing this?” Madge asks, sitting next to Annie. She peels the wrapper off the candy bar.

“With my own two eyes,” Annie affirms.

“You should go over there.”

“They’re just talking.”

At the moment, Mariana laughs loudly and puts her hand on Finnick’s shoulder. He’s just staring at her, mesmerized, as if he no one else exists. Madge looks at Annie and raises an eyebrow. “Still think they’re just talking?”

Annie looks down and starts peeling at a hang nail on her pinky. “I’m not going to get involved. I trust him.”

“You’re a better woman than me,” Madge says. 

Mr. Martinez announces that the food is ready and Finnick scrambles to his feet. He takes a plate piled with a hot dog and two hamburgers and then sits next to Annie. He holds out a hamburger. “Want one?” he mumbles through bites of his own burger. 

“No thanks,” she says. She glances over at Mariana who was staring at Finnick. She looks away as soon as she notices Annie. “I lost my appetite.”

Mariana peels off her shorts so she’s just in her blue string bikini. “You all are welcome to change into your bathing suits if you want. The water is really nice.” She goes to the edge of the rocks to the right of the fire pit where it’s a little deeper, then dives off the edge. 

“Oh, because that’s not cliche at all,” Madge mumbles.

***

It’s 2am and Annie wakes up probably because of the nap she took before in the car. There’s no air conditioning in the house so she throws off the sheets and turns on her side. She smiles when she realizes Finnick is next to her. She hasn’t slept in the same bed with him in months and she hasn’t realized how much she missed it. She closes her eyes and falls asleep almost instantly.

_Annie’s walking along the beach and she sees a group of people in the distance. Then she realizes they’re all at a wedding. They all turn. They’re looking at her. She sees Madge and Gale and Peeta and Katniss and her mom and Mike. She sees Cecily and Devon. She sees Finnick. It’s their wedding. She starts to yell at them that she didn’t agree to this; that she’s not ready to get married, but her feet continue to carry her forward and she can make no sound._

_She gets down to the end of the aisle and feels an unexplainable feeling of dread. This should be the happiest day her life, but she feels mortified. Then, just as the person officiating is about to ask if anyone objects to the wedding, someone rises out of their seat. She turns and sees Thom in the back. “She kissed me, Finnick! You can’t marry her! She’s been lying to you!”_

_Finnick presses his lips into a thin line. Then Mariana stands up. “I would never lie to you, Finnick!” Finnick glares at Annie and then walks to Mariana. He takes her hand and then kisses her._

Annie shoots up and starts breathing heavily. She looks around and sees it’s starting to get light out. She gets out of bed quietly, puts a sweatshirt and flip flops on and then goes outside. She goes across the road to the lake and is about to go down to the dock when she sees someone there already. She’s about to turn around when the person turns around and waves. “Hey!” Mariana calls. “Glad to see I’m not the only one up early around here!”

Annie knows she can’t escape now, so she goes down the steps and smiles politely at Mariana. “Just couldn’t sleep,” she explains. “I was gonna take a walk or something.”

“I’ll probably go for a jog if you wanna join.”

“No thanks,” Annie declines. “I’m not really a runner.” She looks around, trying to find a way to escape. Mariana is the last person she wants to be around right.

Mariana sits on the dock and looks up at Annie. “Anna right?”

“Annie, actually. But close enough.”

Mariana smiles. “Sorry. I’m not the best with names. I didn’t realize Gale was going to have so many friends up here. I just thought it was going to be him and a few guys.” All Annie can think is she’d probably like if Annie and the girls weren’t there so she could have a crack at Finnick.

Mariana looks out across the lake and Annie does too. It’s calm. The sun is already rising in the sky and the lake is flat and peaceful. No one is out on the lake yet and the only people Annie can really see are a few stray joggers in the distance. 

“So you’re good friends with Finnick?” Mariana asks.

“You could say that,” Annie says, gritting her teeth together. She could just say it. It would be so simple to just say they’re dating. But something stops her. Maybe it’s the way he talked to her last night. Or the way they kissed in her dream. Or that Finnick didn’t tell Mariana right away that he was dating her. Were she and Finnick even dating? They never actually said they were dating again. Maybe they’re still broken up…

“Annie?”

Annie turns around and sees a bleary-eyed Finnick standing at the end of the dock. “Hey,” she says lightly. “What are you doing up?”

“Had to pee. Got worried when I didn’t see you,” he mumbles rubbing his eyes.

“I couldn’t sleep,” she says. 

“Come back to bed,” he whines. 

“I dunno,” she says. She gets up and looks at Mariana. “It was nice talking to you.”

“What’s going on?” he asks as they walk back towards the Hawthorne house. 

“Just been getting nightmares lately. Had another last night.”

“What about?”

She sighs and takes his hand. “Well, they used to be about losing you… back when we broke up…”

“I’m here now,” he says, unlinking their hands and putting his arm around her. “Wait… used to? What are they about now?”

“It was only one…” she says looking down.

“Well, tell me about it.”

“It’s okay.”

He hooks his index finger under her chin and moves her head up so she’s looking into his eyes. There’s no way she can lie when she’s looking at that shade of green that she’s so in love with. “What happened?”

“We were getting married,” she starts.

“Wow, so terrible,” he says flatly, his eyes twinkling as he says it. 

“I’ve been afraid of getting married,” she whispers. “Everyone is getting married and I’m afraid.”

“Ann,” he says lightly. “It’s okay.” He kisses the top of her head. “We don’t have to get married yet. We’re not even engaged…” He trails off. “Honestly, I’m just thinking about getting a job and paying off student loans before I even think about weddings.”

She feels like a big weight has been lifted off her shoulders, but then remembers the end of the dream. She feels like she’s going to puke and almost tells him what happened, but then decides not to. _Why do you keep lying? You don’t deserve him.You keep lying to him._

_Tell him,_ the voice in her head practically screams. “Mariana was in the dream too.”

He laughs. “Really?”

She feels angry that he’s laughing. Like it’s all a big joke to him. Can’t he see that it’s driving her crazy? That he flirts with girls without even realizing? That he could leave her in a second and get any girl he wanted? “You don’t like her do you?”

“Annika Cresta,” he says, grinning. “Are you crazy?”

She starts crying. “Yes!”

His eyes soften and they stop walking. “Hey,” he whispers. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I’m mad, Finnick. You shouldn’t date me. You can get better.”

“Hey,” he says. “Nothing good every came of that. We deserve each other.”

She nods. _I don’t deserve you. I lie. I’m lying to you._

“I love you,” she says, filled with guilt.

“Love you too.”

“Can we go back to bed now?”

“Yeah,” she says. _You’re a liar. You’re a liar._

“I promise I won’t doubt us,” he says. “We both should.”

She nods. _But would he say the same if he knew what she did?_

***

_“_ C’mon, Katniss! We’re gonna play Chicken! I can lift you on my shoulders!” Peeta yells from the water.

“Hell no,” Katniss says from her spot on the lounge chair. The Martinez family had been nice enough to let them hang out at their dock and swim in the lake by their house. “If you think I’m getting in that water, you have another thing coming.”

“C’mon, Catnip,” Gale says, using his nickname for her. “Your dad taught you how to swim in the gross lake by our house. I know you definitely know how to swim.”

“I didn’t say I didn’t know how to swim. I just said I wasn’t getting in that water.”

“You’re the only one not in the water,” Annie points out.

“Have fun,” Katniss says laughing. “There could be slugs in there or something.”

Peeta gets out of the water and grins at her. “Since when are you worried about getting dirty?” 

“Peeta Mellark, I swear,” she says as he approaches her. “If you touch me, I will break up with you.”

He laughs. “You wouldn’t.” He picks her up and flings her over his shoulder. Katniss is about his height but she’s a great deal lighter than him and he’s pretty strong.

“Peeta!” she yells, squirming around. “Put me down!”

He laughs and throws her in the water. She breaks out above the surface and gasps for air. “Peeta Bradley Mellark! I can’t believe you did that!” He jumps in and splashes her more and then kisses her on the cheek. Then, his eyes widen when he realizes that she used his middle name.

“No one’s supposed to know that!” he says, blushing.

“Bradley?” Finnick laughs. “Did your parents hate you?”

Peeta groans. “Can we not?” He looks at Katniss. “You know I got bullied for this in school.”

“Why?” Annie asks.

“Peeta Bradley,” Katniss says. “Peeta Brad… Pita bread… His parents thought they were funny.”

“And my older brother also has the same middle name,” he says flatly. “Ryan, more commonly known as Rye.” 

Finnick roars with laughter. “And I thought Finnick was stupid when I was young.”

Peeta glares at Katniss and gets out of the water. “Aw, Peeta,” she says getting out. “C’mon, you kinda deserved it.” He smiles wanly at her. “I’ll play Chicken,” she says flatly.

Peeta shoots up and gets into the water. “Come on! I want to beat Finnick at something water related.”

Annie gets on Finnick’s shoulders. “In your dreams, Pita Bread,” he says, smiling. 

Annie sees Mariana jogging down the path and she narrows her eyes. “You know, it’s probably not a good idea to play that in such shallow water,” Mariana advises. Annie glares at her, but then notices there are two people trudging behind her. She probably just doesn’t like that Annie’s on Finnick’s shoulders instead of her.

“You know, it doesn’t work if all the people playing Chicken are chickens,” Johanna says, plopping down on the deck. Jena just rolls her eyes good-naturedly. 

“I found them trying to get in the house,” Mariana says. “The angry one almost put a rock through the window.”

Gale laughs so hard that he snorts. “The angry one? Our Jo? Never,” he says sarcastically.

“How was Vegas?” Annie asks, lightening up once Mariana goes back into the house.

“Alright,” Jo says, fidgeting a little. All of a sudden she gets up. “We should unpack and sleep. It’s been a long day of travel. See you weirdos, later.”

“That was weird,” Katniss comments.

“Even for Jo,” Finnick adds.

***

“I’m tired,” Madge whines.

“C’mon,” Gale says, taking her hand and kissing her. “I want to show you something.”

“Fine,” she says. She’s wearing a white sundress and has her long hair clipped back with a butterfly pin. Gale can barely tear his eyes away.

“Madge, some shoes?”

“Nah. I’m a child of the Earth.”

“Two days Upstate and now you’re a child of the Earth? You’re the biggest city girl I know.”

“I’m connecting with nature.”

“Well, if your foot connects with some nature, like dog poop or broken glass, don’t come crying to me.”

She huffs and slides on some flip flops. It’s completely dark out and he leads her out to the barn. “This was my favorite place as a kid,” he says. “We used to play out here a lot. We’d play Manhunt and I’d always hide up there. He points to the loft up top where there are all these bales of hay.” Madge looks around. It’s a little rundown, but there’s something magical about it. Like the barns you see in movies. Plus, it feels special because she knows how much it means to Gale. He goes over to the ladder that leads up to the loft. “Here,” he says. “Go up.”

“Is it safe?”

He shrugs. “I’ll catch you if you fall.”

“That doesn’t make me feel very safe.”

“Just be careful with the flip flops, yeah?” She sticks her tongue out at him and climbs up the ladder.

“Are you looking at my ass? Is that why you wanted me to go first?”

“Yup,” he says, laughing.

She groans as she gets up to the top. “You’re seven years old, Gale Hawthorne.”

He scrambles up the ladder and sits next to her. There’s a window up there. “Look,” he says, pointing. “Can’t see stars like that in the city can you?”

“It’s beautiful,” she says, looking out at the large expanse of stars in front of her. 

“Absolutely amazing.” She’s silent for a long time and then she speaks again. “Can you imagine getting married here?”

“What?” he asks, taken a bit aback by the suggestion.

She turns to him. “We can put up lights in the barn and have a dance floor and folding chairs. We can have the reception at night so we can see the stars… It would be perfect.”

“Your mother would never let you have our wedding here. There are too many people… they wouldn’t fit… And let me remind you that your family doesn’t exactly seem like the type to attend a wedding-”

She interrupts him. “Then forget about them. Let’s do it now. This week.”

“ _This week?_ ” he yells. “Are you crazy?”

“Probably,” she says. “But why _not?_ All of our best friends are here. We can have one of them get ordained online or something… What more do we need?”

“Your family is going to kill me if they find out we got married in a barn in Upstate New York.”

“Then we don’t tell them,” she says simply as if it’s completely clear in her head. “We’ll have the wedding my mom plans when we get back, but we’ll know, in our hearts, that this was the real wedding,” she says, looking at him. “This was the one that matters.”

He kisses her and then pulls away, staring into her eyes for a second. “Let’s do it,” he says laughing. He grins so wide that his face hurts. Tears start to form in her eyes and she feels so completely happy. Like nothing could ever hurt her, like nothing could ever stop her from being happy again. She loves Gale more than anything in the world and she knows he loves her too. “Let’s get married.”


	13. I Promise You I Will Never Stop Loving You

“You’re _what?_ ” 

Madge and Gale had round up all of their friends—even a sleeping Johanna—in the living room of the house to tell them all the big news. They stood hand in hand and before they could even explain, Madge had blurted out excitedly: “We’re getting married!”

“Well of course you are. That’s kind of what happens after you get engaged,” Sebastian says with an eye roll.

“This week,” Gale explained glaring at Sebastian.

“Did you guys trip on a rock and hit your heads?” Johanna asked, resting her head on Jena’s shoulder. She yawned. “And can I go to bed now that you’ve decided to inform us of your little delusion.”

“Oh come on, Guys. Hear them out,” Finnick countered. “I doubt this is silly little dream.”

“Well, I’ll be,” Johanna scoffed. “If you had told me a year ago that Finnick Odair was going to be supporting marriage, I would have laughed in your face.”

“Well, if-if-“ Finnick tried to come up with a comeback but he couldn’t think of anything.

“Anyways,” Madge says, drawing attention back to the front of the room. “We’re going to get married on Friday,” she says. “We’re going to have the bachelor and bachelorette parties on Wednesday. We’ll go shopping tomorrow and set up on Thursday.”

“And then we’ll fly around the world in one night and deliver Easter Eggs to all the children,” Johanna said sarcastically.

“Well at least someone here wants to get married,” Jena says crossly. She gets up, pushing Johanna aside. “I’m going to go to bed.” She walks out of the room and goes down the hall.

Finnick turned to look at Johanna. “Nice going, Mason.”

“Shove it, Odair. Would you seriously shut up for once in your life? All this talk about marriage and _love?_ We got married, okay? We got married in Vegas and she’s being all upset with me because she feels like I don’t love her because we didn’t have a _real wedding_ okay? But it takes two people to get married doesn’t it?” She got up and walked out the door.

“This is not how I expected this announcement to go,” Gale says awkwardly. 

“I’m gonna go talk to her,” Finnick says, getting up.

Annie yawns sleepily. “I would go to bed, but you’re all sitting on the couch. Which is where Finnick and I sleep.”

“I’m still getting married and I’d really appreciate if you all appreciated me and were excited!” Madge says exasperatedly. She walked off and went upstairs to where she and Gale were staying.

Gale was about to go after her when Sebastian got up. He put a hand on his shoulder. “She’s my sister. Let me talk to her.” Gale looks at him wide-eyed and nodded.

Sebastian walked up the stairs to the loft where Madge and Gale were sleeping. Madge was laying face down on across the entire bed. He sat next to her and put a hand on her shoulder. “Hey,” he says lightly. She looks up, shocked to see her brother there and not Gale.

“If you’re here to call me stupid or say I’m being a drama queen, I don’t want to hear it,” she mumbles, putting her face into one of the pillows.

“C’mon, Margaret. Be an adult,” he mumbles.

Madge sits up and clasps her hands around her knees. “What?”

“I’m proud of you.”

She looks over at him and pushes a piece of hair that fell out of her clip out of her eyes. “You’re _what?_ ” Sebastian and Madge used to be close as kids, but as soon as they reached middle school, they started to grow apart. They stopped wearing matching outfits and hanging out with the same people. Soon they barely talked and if they were talking, it was usually arguing.

“Oh, don’t make me repeat it,” he says with a small smile. He put a hand on her knee. “Listen,” he says. “You’re my twin sister and I may make fun of you but-“ He sighs and runs his hands through his hair. “I um-“ Madge could tell he was having trouble with what he was about to tell her. “Liam and I have been dating for like eight months. We were dating before Thanksgiving and we got into a huge fight because he wanted to come home with me for Thanksgiving and i told him I wasn’t ready. We kinda broke up and then I made out with Annie’s step brother and that was whole mess.” He took a deep breath and Madge put a hand on his shoulder for support. “Um, and I meant to introduce him as my boyfriend at our birthday party but I chickened out. You know how they are.” Madge nodded. Her parents acted like they were accepting, but they often made it hard to talk to them.

“But I mean… seeing you and Gale down there, wanting to get married. And like, how you proudly introduced him to mom and dad even though he’s not the dashing rich man they wanted you to marry—that takes guts.”

“Seb,” she says, tears pricking the corners of her eyes. “She wrapped an arm around him and rested her head on his shoulder. “I wish I had gotten to _meet_ Liam more instead of you having your tongue down his throat all the time.”

“I may be suppressing things,” he says with a dry laugh. “It’s just, I _know_ they say they’re cool with this bisexuality thing, but I also know they're fully expecting me to marry a woman. And if I bring home Liam… I’m afraid they’re going to I don’t know, disown me or something.”

Madge shook her head. “I doubt they’re going to disown you,” she says. “But I’ll be here for you every step of the way.” She felt closer to her brother than she had in years. “Hey, Seb?” she asks, not moving their position.

“Yeah?”

“Will you walk me down the aisle?”

“I’d be honored.”

***

“Oh, come on, Mason,” Finnick groans, walking barefoot down the winding path down to the lake. “Did you really have to come all the way out here? I’m barefoot. I’m going to end up stepping in dog shit.”

“This wasn’t meant to be convenient. This was meant so I can be alone.”

He sits next to her on the dock and puts an arm around her. “You okay?”

“I thought she wanted to be married to me,” she says after a long pause.

“She does.”

“Certainly doesn’t seem like it.”

“I think she probably just pictured some big grand wedding, Jo. You gotta talk with her about it, not me, okay?”

Johanna groans and lays back on the dock. “Talking is _hard._ ”

Finnick nodded. “Yeah.”

“You and Annie doing okay?”

He shrugs. “I feel like there’s something she isn’t telling me.”

“Can _I_ tell you something?”

He lays down next to her and turns to face her. “Of course.”

“You have to promise not to tell anyone.”

“Promise.”

“Like seriously. Not Annie. Not Katniss. Not the barista at Starbucks. No one.”

“Calm down, Mason. My lips are sealed.”

“I don’t even know why I’m telling you first because I don’t even know if it’s going to happen yet and-“

“This is the complete opposite of the Australia debacle,” he says, interrupting her and tapping her lightly on the arm. “So I’m glad.”

She took a deep breath. “Jena and I are going to have a baby.”

“What?” he yells, sitting straight up.

“Don’t wake the whole world,” she mumbles, sitting up as well.

“No, I mean, that’s crazy—that’s great…I-“ he stops mid sentence and hugs her. “When did- how did-“

“We talked about it a lot in Australia,” she says. “About whether we want to adopt, in vitro, surrogacy…” She trails off. “We’re still figuring it out, but ever since this whole marriage debacle, I really wanted to tell someone.”

He hugs her close and smiles. “I’m really happy for you.”

***

Annie was in bed trying to sleep when Finnick crawled in next to her. “Is Jo okay?” she mumbles, not turning towards him. 

“Yeah,” he says. “Just a lot going on I guess. They’ll be okay.” He put his arm around her and kissed the top of her head. She couldn’t look at him. All of this marriage talk was cluttering her brain and she could barely think. “Hey,” he whispers. “Are _you_ okay?”

“Just tired.”

“Annie,” he says seriously. Annie sighs, knowing she’s not going to get out of this one. But then she didn’t have to because he kisses her on the top of her head. “Marriage stuff again?” Annie turns on her side and cuddles up against him, resting her head against his chest. Even with the stress she had been feeling lately, she had _missed_ him so much. She had missed cuddling next to him at m=night and sharing their warmth underneath the covers. She had missed his light eyes that made her feel just as they did when they had just met. She had missed his strong hands, soft lips, and steady heartbeat; the same one she listened to just now as she lay in the dark listening to nothing but the crickets, the clock, and the heartbeat of the love of her life. 

She had to tell him.

“I kissed Thom,” she blurts out. 

“Who’s Thom?” he asks. She could hear the sleep in his voice. He was falling asleep, but he stirs as she blurts out her confession.

“My roommate.” She sits up, feeling smaller than she ever did. 

“Okay,” Finnick says simply, turning over on his side.

“T-that that’s it?”

“Yeah,” he mumbles. “We weren’t dating. It’s whatever.”

“But-“ Her brain was swimming. She didn’t know what she expected, but she certainly didn’t expect this. “But you’re not mad?”

“Did you want me to be?” His words were slurred with sleep. 

“I-I-“ She pulled her legs up to her chest and sat up, then rested her chin on her knees. “I don’t know.”

“I kissed someone too.”

“You _what_?” 

“We weren’t dating, Ann,” he says. Now he sounds more annoyed than tired.

“I just,” she says, blinking away her tears. It seems so hypocritical to be upset at Finnick when she did the same thing, and yet, she couldn’t help but feel crushed. The whole break up was a mess and she was hoping everything would have gone back to normal when they got back together. She couldn’t have been more wrong.

She feels the bed shift as he sits up and puts his arm around her. “Hey, I don’t love you any less, okay? It happens. We both had a lot going on and we didn’t handle it very well. But it’s over with okay?”

“Okay.” 

But it didn’t feel okay. 

***

“You look like Hell,” Johanna comments over breakfast. After their multiple bouts of drama the night before, Madge had successfully rounded up everyone and convinced them to go along with her plan. 

“So then at 3:55 we’ll go to get chairs and the at 4:25 we can go into town and get our nails done-“

“And then at 4:30 Johanna will kill Madge,” Johanna continues with a laugh.

“You _promised_ you would behave.”

“Only if you promise you won’t be a Bridezilla,” Johanna counters. “You’re getting married in a _barn_ you can save the theatrics for when Mommy and Daddy pay for the wedding in the country club, okay Sweetheart?”

Madge glares at her. “At least I didn’t get married in Vegas.”

Annie could see Jena tense up at the accusation and she closes her hand around Finnick’s. He was still barely awake since his coffee hadn’t kicked in yet, but he still gives her hand a reassuring squeeze. “C’mon, guys,” she pleads. “Can’t we all get along?”

Madge takes a deep breath and nods. “We don’t have that much to do,” she admits. “I just want to get it done you know?”

Johanna nods back. “I could always hang back here and try to get the barn in order with the guys. Less people in the car you know?”

Annie smiles lightly. She barely got any sleep last night and was about to fall asleep at the table. “Did Finnick keep you up last night?” Katniss jokes.

Finnick suddenly seemed awake. “We’re sleeping on a sofa bed in the living room. If I kept her up, you’d know,” he says with a wink. 

“Finnick Odair,” Peeta, who had been silent until now, pipes up. “Making me lose my appetite one comment at a time.” 

***

“I’m getting married in two days,” Madge practically screams as she and Annie hobble around trying to move a table into the barn. 

“Only you would have such a high-key low-key wedding,” Annie says, putting the table down in the middle of the barn. They had spent the last few days just shopping and getting ready for Friday. They had all went shopping for slightly more formal clothes they could wear to the wedding. Madge, after much deliberation, decided to wear the flowing white dress she had brought with her, and a flower crown. It was an outfit she already had with her, but she looked gorgeous in it and they all agreed she had to get married in it.

Annie hadn’t been getting a lot of sleep lately. She had barely even wanted to sleep in the same bed with Finnick seeing as she didn’t know how to come to grips with their confessions. She was glad she told him and that he wasn’t angry at her, but it felt like she almost _wanted_ him to be. Plus, Annie hadn’t expected him to confess that he had kissed someone as well. She wanted nothing more than to tell Madge about it, but she wasn’t about to bring it up during the week leading up to her wedding. This was supposed to be about her. 

“Where are you going for the honeymoon?” Annie jokes, sitting down on the ground and absentmindedly twisting some hay together.

“Boston,” Madge says, plopping down next to her.

“Seriously?”

Madge nods. “Gonna be back for the rest of the summer,” she says, putting an arm around Annie. “I miss you, Ann. This is my last semester and then I’m out.”

Annie nods. “Everyone’s graduating, getting married, and I’m just…” she trails off.

“Oh, Ann. It’s fine. There’s really no rush.” She rests her head on Annie’s shoulder. “Is everything okay with you and Finnick?”

Annie nods. “Just fine.” She would tell her after they got married. If she was able to hold it in that long.

***

“Where are you going?” Annie asks, as Finnick pulls his duffel bag up on the sofa bed and starts shoving clothes into it. 

“Doing a bit of a flip flop,” Finnick says. “The guys are staying at the Martinez’s house tonight so Gale and Madge are apart the night before their wedding. And then tomorrow so we can all get ready separately.” Annie nods, not really liking the idea of Finnick spending the night in the company of Mariana. “You okay? You’ve been quiet lately.”

Annie nods and wraps her arms around him from behind him. He stops what he’s doing for a moment and leans her head slightly back. “I miss you,” she says with a smile. “They didn’t exactly give us much privacy sticking us on the sofa bed.”

“Should’ve give Katniss and Peeta the sofa bed,” he agrees, turning his head the best he can and kissing her. “Time away and I can’t spend any alone time with you—and we won’t have much alone time when we get back and have to share an apartment with Thomas.”

Annie’s stomach flipped at the way he says Thom’s name. She almost forgot that they would have to move back to the apartment and Thom would still be there. They’d have to deal with all their own personal troubles with Thom around as well. She thought Finnick didn’t care, but the tone in his voice seemed to say otherwise. He zips up his bag and detaches her arms from around his middle. “See you tomorrow, yeah?” he asks, as Gale comes down the stairs. They both walk out the door with Peeta following closely behind them.

“Yeah.”

***

“Okay, let’s see what booze the Hawthornes have in their cabinets,” Johanna says, hopping up on the counter and opening up the various cabinets over the sink.

“Jo,” Annie says from her spot on the couch. “I really don’t think you should be going through their cabinets.”

Madge shrugs. “Gale says it’s fine. We’ll reimburse them or whatever. C’mon this is my bachelorette party—live a little.”

Annie leans back into the couch as she watches Johanna grab a bottle of dark liquid out of the cabinet. “Not my jug, but it’ll do,” she says. She slides down from the counter and unscrews the bottle, taking a sip directly from it. Jena comes down the hallway from their room and wrinkles her nose. 

“Really? What is that? Rum?”

“The only man I’ll ever love. Jack Daniels.”

Madge opens the fridge and pulls out a bottle of wine. She pours a glass for herself into a clear cup. “Jena? Annie? Katniss?”

Jena raises her hand and Madge pours more wine into another cup and hands it to her. Katniss gets up from her spot at the kitchen table and opens the fridge. “This nerd better have a beer or something,” Katniss says, fishing a can of beer out of the back of the fridge. She cracks open the beer and sits on the couch with Annie. “Alright, Undersee. What are we doing for your little party?”

Madge sips on her wine and shrugs. “I just wanted one last night with my friends as a free woman,” she jokes. “I missed you guys,” she admits. “So much has been going on lately and I feel like I haven’t really gotten enough quality time with you.”

“Enough with the sap,” Katniss says with a smile.

There’s a knock on the door and Annie looks around. “Think one of the boys got tired already?” 

“It’s probably Liam and Sebastian seeing if they can come back here and bang,” Madge says with a laugh as she gets up to answer the door. But instead of Liam and Sebastian, she comes face to face with Mariana.

“Mind if I join?” she asks with a smile. “Gale said you probably wouldn’t mind. The boys are just drinking and playing on my brother’s xbox,” she complains. “And the cute ones are gay so that’s no fun anyway.”

Annie and Madge share a knowing glance, but she invites her inside anyway. “There’s wine on the table if you want any.”

Mariana shrugs and pours herself a glass and then sits on the floor in between the two couches. “What are you girls up to?”

Madge shrugs. “Just having some quality time before the big day tomorrow.”

“Gale told me. I can’t _believe_ it. I’ve known him since we were about six. We used to always joke that we were going to get married. Not that I would ever actually marry him. His friend is much cuter—Finnick, right? _Very_ cute.”

Annie rolls her eyes. “Very taken.”

“Oh, I know, but you can’t blame a girl for looking can you?”

“I’m sure I could,” Johanna says flatly, taking another swig of Jack Daniels.

“Annie, spill,” Madge says suddenly.

“What?”

“I meant to ask you this when the boys weren’t around, but you’ve been acting strange all week.”

Annie suddenly knew that Madge had found her out, but she certainly didn’t feel comfortable spilling her guts around the girl who was basically hitting on her boyfriend _and_ her friend’s fiancée in the same sentence. “I’ll tell you later,” Annie says, suddenly realizing she has nothing to drink. She gets up and takes a cup from the table and holds it in front of Jo. Joanna raises her eyebrows but pours Jack Daniels into half of the cup.

“You’re gonna wanna mix-“ but she stops suddenly when Annie tips back the cup and takes a large sip. “Jesus Christ, Cresta. I think you’re becoming more reckless than your boyfriend.”

Annie sits down on the couch and takes another sip. “Katniss, what are you doing this summer?”

“Peeta and I have been working at a summer camp together,” she says. “And um-“ she looks over at Madge and Madge nods. “We’re moving out of our apartment and we’re getting our own place together in the fall.”

“No way!” Annie says.”Congratulations.”

Katniss shrugs. “Yeah, well. We have been dating for a while. It just feels a bit weird you know? Moving in with the nerdy boy who used to sit on the playground and read books during recess. And now I’m going to share a kitchen and a bathroom with him?”

“Just a kitchen and a bathroom? Weird apartment,” Johanna comments.

“Shut up, Mason. You got married before me.”

“And _me_ ,” Madge adds in.

“Touché,” Johanna says before taking another swig.

“Which one’s your boyfriend?” Mariana pipes in.

“The blonde one,” Katniss says.

“Oh, I thought maybe he was gay too.”

“So did I,” Katniss scoffs.

“Is this really what you want to do before your wedding?” Mariana asks. “You want to sit around and drink and talk about your boyfriends?”

“Kind of wish you weren’t here,” Johanna mumbles. Annie snorts and almost spits out her drink. 

“Well, what do you suggest we do?” Katniss challenges.

“Let’s go swimming in the lake,” she says, putting her wine down.

“So wild,” Johanna says sarcastically.

“No, that’s fun,” Jena says.

Annie drains the rest of her drink. “And the drunker I am, the more fun it will be,” she says, before getting up to go get a bathing suit.

Mariana takes off her shirt to reveal a lime green string bikini underneath. She peels off her shorts as well and puts the clothes on the kitchen chair. “I’ll see you guys down there. Maybe I can convince the boys to come in as well,” she says with a wink, before running out the door.

“I think I hate her more than Angie,” Katniss says.

“Agreed,” Madge says before finishing her wine. “But a swim in a lake can be nice.”

They all get ready and head down together. Joanna is still clutching the bottle of Jack Daniels, which Jena tried to get her to leave behind and Katniss is on her third beer. “I hate her,” Annie mumbles. 

“It’s fine. It’s not like she’s coming to the wedding. We’ll be done with her after that.”

Annie nods and takes her shorts off and is about to get into the water when she trips as she was trying to step out of her shorts. She trips on the last step and falls.

Johanna starts laughing but then stops when she realizes she actually fell really hard. “Shit, Ann. You okay?”

“I think I may have broken my wrist but I’m very drunk and can’t tell.”

“Yup, officially more reckless than Finnick Odair.”

***

“Hey,” Finnick says, getting up from the sofa bed when Annie trudges into the house. “Madge went to sleep don’t worry. Thanks for staying with Annie,” Finnick says to Johanna, Jena, and Katniss. They let Madge and the boys hang back, but the rest of them went to the emergency room with Annie where they waited for four hours to get a cast on. “How you doing, Babe?” he asks, wrapping his arms around her and kissing the top of her head.

She looks up at him and starts crying. Johanna looks over and immediately runs down the hall. Katniss waves, grabs another beer off the table, and follows. Jena follows behind her.

“Hey, hey,” he whispers, leading her to the bed. She slumps down and leans her head on him when he sits next to her. “What’s going on with you?”

“You’re not mad at me.”

He starts laughing. “ _What?”_

“I thought you were going to be mad about Thom but you just shrugged it off and said you kissed another girl. Do you even love me at all?”

“Annika Cresta, why would you even _say_ that?”

“I’ve just been paranoid lately. It’s stupid. I’m so stupid.”

“Annie, you’re not stupid okay? I love you. I’m in love with you and I want to be with you for the rest of my life. Yeah, I was upset about Thom, but it’s okay. We weren’t dating and I know it doesn’t mean you love me any less and I certainly don’t love you any less. Annie, I love you okay? I promise you I will never stop loving you.” He wipes the tears away from her face and kisses her.

“I love you too.”

***

“I’m getting married today!” Madge screams down the hall. Annie groans. She and Finnick had moved to the room where Sebastian and Liam had been staying for a more comfortable night’s sleep and more privacy. 

“I’m so tired,” Annie mumbles.

“I guess that was my fault,” Finnick whispers cheekily in her ear.

“Don’t make me hit you with my cast,” she says, opening her eyes and smiling at him. She kisses him quickly. “I really need to get up and help Madge,” she says, sitting up. “And you should get over to help with Gale. You are officiating,” she says with a laugh.

She gets up out of bed but Finnick just pulls her back down. Not expecting it, she shrieks. “Finnnn,” she groans. “I have to go.”

“But it’s early and I miss you,” he says with a smirk.

She kisses him on the nose. “I’ll see you later. You’ll get to see how great this white cast looks with my dress,” she says with a laugh. 

“You’d look great in anything, Annie Pie.”

“Oh, stop it, Phil Nick.”

***

“Wow.” That’s all Annie can even say, because they walk into the barn and it looks like something out of a fairy tale. There’s some stray hay sprinkled on the ground and a few tables on one side. They only expect their friends to be there, so it’s not that big of a spread. They have bagels and other food for their reception. It was just meant to be a small party with friends. They have fairy lights hung up all over the barn and the inside is just glowing. 

“You’re getting married today,” Annie says. “ _Here._ ”

“You’re going to make me cry.”

Annie hugs her and takes a deep breath. She steps back and looks at her best friend. She’s wearing a white flowing sundress and white gladiator style sandals. Her hair is curled and falling in waves along her shoulders and she’s wearing a pink and purple flower crown. “You look beautiful,” she says. “You’re getting married to Gale Hawthorne in his childhood lake house barn and my stupid boyfriend Finnick Odair is officiating and you’re getting _married._ ”

“Oh, stop,” Madge says, getting all choked up. She hugs Annie. “Annie Cresta, you’re my best friend and I’m so glad that I met you because you thought you were going to fail our class freshman year. I’m so glad that I made you move in with Finnick Odair last year. You guys are so good for each other and I can’t wait until I get to be your matron of honor at your wedding.”

“Matron?” Annie asks with a laugh.

“I know. It makes me sound like I’m fifty and drive a mini van.”

Annie laughs as Johanna walks in and pushes them aside. “Hey, the boys are going to be here soon so you better go hide so Gale won’t see you. Finnick and I have to set up the radio so we can play that dumb song when you walk down the aisle.”

“Thanks, Jo,” Madge scoffs. 

Johanna puts a hand on Madge’s shoulder. “Hey, I’m glad you’re doing this. Now I have an excuse not to attend a wedding with your stuffy relatives.” She hugs her. “You’rea beautiful bride.”

***

“I can’t do this,” Madge says as the music starts playing. 

“Yes, you can,” Annie reassures her. Finnick is already at the end of the barn waiting for them all to walk down. Peeta and Annie walk down first as the best man and maid of honor. They’re followed by Liam and Katniss, then Joanna and Jena, and lastly, Sebastian and Madge. 

Annie reaches the end of the aisle and kisses Finnick on the cheek. “You look hot. Love the cast,” he says with a wink. Annie rolls her eyes but blushes as she takes her place on the very left side of the semi circle they’re going to be forming around Gale and Madge. They all turn when Madge walks down the aisle with Sebastian. All the boys are just wearing pants and dress shirts and blue ties. Most are wearing sneakers. All the girls are wearing casual dresses. 

“Dearly beloved,” Finnick says with a laugh. Madge shoots him a glance. “We are gathered here today to celebrate the marriage of Gale Elias Hawthorne and Margaret Eliana Undersee who both had tot tell me their middle names for this.” Annie looks at him and starts laughing, feeling more intense love for that curly hair and goofy grin than she ever did before. “And now we’re going to do the vows because I have no idea what I’m doing. And then later we’ll exchange the ring pops because we don’t actually have rings.”

“Gale Hawthorne,” Madge says looking at him. “I can’t believe I’m actually getting married in a barn, my mother would absolutely _die,”_ she says with a laugh. “But here’s the thing. Since meeting you, you’ve opened me up to a whole different world. I was raised in such a stuffy proper family and you showed me humble family gatherings that were a little more ragtag but had much more heart. You’ve shown me how to love more and more each day and you’ve shown me that I can fall more and more in love with the same person each day. I love you completely.”

“Madge,” he says with a smile. “I never thought I’d date someone who I felt like I was already married to for years before we even got married. You make me love you more and more each day and you just feel so comfortable and warm and lovely. I never expected this is how we’d be getting married, but I honestly couldn’t imagine it any other way.”

“Okay and now I guess I do that formal part,” Finnick says, grabbing on to Annie’s hand from around Madge. “Do I do the death part first? Or… Wait, does anyone object to this marriage?”

“Finnick, you don’t have to do that. No one objects to this marriage,” Annie says.

“I do.”

They all turn around collectively to see Mariana standing in the doorway of the barn. She walks down and Madge grabs onto Gale’s hand. “You what?” Finnick asks.

“Gale Hawthorne, I’m in love with you and always have been. You can’t get married.”


End file.
